THE Zesco board of directors has terminated the employment contract of newly-appointed managing director Lemba Nyirenda.
Zesco board chairman Songowayo Zyambo announced in a press release yesterday that the board failed to reach an agreement with Dr Nyirenda on the terms and conditions of his contract of employment.
“Further to our earlier announcement concerning the appointment of Dr Lemba D. Nyirenda as managing director of Zesco, we regret to inform the public that the board has failed to reach an agreement with Dr L. D. Nyirenda on the terms and conditions of his contract of employment,” he said.
Mr Zyambo said the board has therefore declared the position of managing director vacant with immediate effect.
He said the chief operating officer, Mr Cyprian Chitundu, has been appointed to act as managing director.
On July 4, the board of directors appointed Dr Nyirenda as Zesco managing director.
He replaced Mr Rodnie Sisala whose contract was terminated about three months ago.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
I know Dr Lemba Nyirenda gave them conditions that are straight forward and since he is a no nonsense man, he decided to drop off the appointment since he didnt want any unecessary political interference by the RB govt
But on a serious note, am seeing a tilting of the tribal balance from lenje/lala to tumbuka/ngoni and this will not auger well with RB as this will now translate into nepotism. Just songogowayo zgambo, Nyirenda imwe bana ba kwithu nchivichi kasi, mahara mulije?
#1May be he refused to fund the Chitambo by election
# 3, you right all therecent appointment have been skewed towards the East and its very dangerous. Dr Nyerinda’s CV looked very impressive though, its sad this thing has happened like this. Maybe its time for Mwansa to come back after all everyone at Zesco loved the man.
Zambia needs more men like Nyirenda. Stand up for what you are worth. I just hope that some funny guy will not come up with the idea of providing funds for an expatriate MD.
Chitundu is a solid and excellent engineer from Muf. Give him a chance.
I was taught by Dr. Nyirenda at UNZA some years back. He is a professional and a good man indeed. I am sure he didnt want to take any nonsense from the politicians. Its good at least he maintains his professional integrity.
Lets hope its true it is the condition of service which they didn’t agree on. But one question is how can you appoint someone who does not agree conditions? What comes first here? Conditions or Appointment
Ba ngwele should be putting the interests of the country first not fighting about contracts at the expenses of the country. The electricity situation in Zed is in a mess
Mr Chitundu is a very inteligent man and no one can intimidiate him. Govt. cannot take advantage of him. Teti bangalilile na Kamuchanga baby. God bless you brother.
On “THE Zesco board of directors has terminated the employment contract of newly-appointed managing director Lemba Nyirenda“, sad but I believe Dr Lemba Nyirenda stood up to his ground on being principled and maintaining his integrity.
AKAPONDO, I hope you will now realise that Zambia has more qualified people other than Dr Clive Chirwa. Find time to ask Dr Lemba Nyirenda at UNZA what projects he did when he was doing his PhD work and your talk about Dr Chirwa C. at NASA will surely reduce.
I wish Dr Lemba Nyirenda all the very best in his activities.
Be blessed.
_
Matthew 6:33 + KJV Bible
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
But what employment contract haz been terminated when “the board failed to reach an agreement…… on the termz and conditionz of hiz contract of employment”?
Nobody is indispenable. Had the Board accepted his conditions it would have continued to dance to his tune. The Board has done the right thing by being firm. Bravo Zesco Board of Directors. Let us hope the Acting MD will prove himself worth of appointing to the post.
When you give someone a job, you should also be be ready to let that person make decisions.
You dont put someone in position as a mere figure, and want to start driving him around; Not with a learned person of the calibre Dr Nyirenda, with principle guidlines in life.
He did not accept the job to earn a leaving but to contribute to Zesco and the nation. The conditions of contract they are talking about have nothing to do with Personal benefits, but scope decision making authority.
There are things he wanted to go the way he sees fit for the benefit of the organisation, which other people are not in favour of and wanted to bully him and make negative decisions on his behalf, and yet the decision aught to be rightfully made by him as CEO. On this, his principles would not tolerate.
#1 I find myself agreeing with you Dr Nyirenda is too principled to head that financial arm of ta political party called MMD. I think he is just preserving his integrity!
#10 Dr Nyirenda is an academic and very sharp man, I worked with him alot during his UNIDO days and the man would have turned ZESCO around believe me, he is down to earth and very approachable unassuming man. He would have been the best man for that job and he is an accomplished engineer who worked in the US and designed a fail safe mechanism for a serious production plant none compared to ZESCO, he even was talking of effcient systems that ZESCO would have benefited from, but i guess Songowayo and his friends are looking at other qualifications i.e. Bootlick!
14 greetings and thanks. On your “Dr Nyirenda is an academic and very sharp man, I worked with him alot during his UNIDO days and the man would have turned ZESCO around believe me, he is down to earth and very approachable unassuming man. He would have been the best man for that job and he is an accomplished engineer who worked in the US and designed a fail safe mechanism for a serious production plant none compared to ZESCO…” simply proves what I wrote to AKAPONDO in posting 10 above. I hope he will read it.
Be blessed.
_
Matthew 6:33 + KJV Bible
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
We will soon know the truth surrounding the departure of Dr. Lemba Nyirenda. It cant be true that Zesco can fail to meet conditions of service for CEO. There is more to do with political interference and the fact that Dr Nyirenda is more of an academician and not Zesco grown. It has to more with policy implementation. Its better the Don has left before his CV got stained by ZESCO/GRZ. As for Chitundu, I doubt how he is going to drive Zesco out of its managerail slumber as he has bin one of the senior managers. I doubt if Zyambo understands fya mageza. I remember the man being at Zambia National farmers Union as Executive Director. What is he going to offer?
Dr. Lemba is a man who speaks his mind out honestly LOUDLY and say things as they are! (arbitrator!) In positions like Zesco MD where alot of strings have to control what you do and say, that kind of a person will find it difficult to exist! I have worked with him both as a student and engineer on energy projects. Mr.Chitundu and Dr. Nyirenda was going to be dynamic dual combination to run Zesco since Cyprian is equally as good both technically and management wise! Tribes aside for once!
When you give someone a job, you should also be be ready to let that person make decisions.
You dont put someone in position as a mere figure, and want to start driving him around; Not with a learned person of the calibre Dr Nyirenda, with principle guidlines in life.
He did not accept the job to earn a leaving but to contribute to Zesco and the nation. The conditions of contract they are talking about have nothing to do with Personal benefits, but scope decision making authority.
There are things he wanted to go the way he sees fit for the benefit of the organisation, which other people are not in favour of and wanted to bully him and make negative decisions on his behalf, and yet the decision aught to be rightfully made by him as CEO. On this, his principles would not allow.
The only problem that we have in MMD is that, if you are an academician you become a threat to them. Yes John Chinena i agree with you Dr Nyirenda is a principled man who would work to make a change not being told what to do. He had a vission for ZESCO and the govt wanted to make him Simon says jump chap Nope that is not his game. DR Nyirenda is a well learned man down to earth and analyses things properly. He believes in Listen See and Act unlike the other lickers who believe in listen and act.
There we go again with zesikolo.
“TAFIBWA LUBILO” … bemba proverb….You dont bite the fingers that feed u.In my opinion i think this man DR. NYERENDA was too rude towards the directives given to him.For instance he switched the power off in I.T.T. ,one of the govt. paid institution and then forced the govt.to pay or else no power.His intention was good in business terms but politicaly,it can be translated differently e.g.. inciting members of the armed forces to mutiny or acting with intention to cause instability in the govt …SO HE WAS NOT WELL BRIEFED….”REF:ITEZHI TEZHI story”….
Here is the truth. The Board recommended Chtundu from the begining to be ZESCO MD but RB refused and floated Nyirenda. RB told the board that if FTJ put his tribesman Mwansa, and Mwanawasa his cousin Sisala, why cant he(RB) put his tribesman Nyirenda. The Board threatened to resign but RB stood his ground and appointed Nyirenda. More to come. Watch this space.
.#22 ,one of the govt. paid institution and then forced the govt.to pay or else no power.His intention was good in business terms but politicaly,it can be translated differently e.g.. inciting members of the armed forces to mutiny or acting with intention to cause instability in the govt …SO HE WAS NOT WELL BRIEFED….”REF:ITEZHI TEZHI story———Well briefed or not the MAN is 100% right. Next Zesco will be sold to some foreigner so where is the logic security wise? Its this interferance that is destablising the liquidity of our PARASTATALS. Zamtel is not different from ZESCO security wise but you are selling it. This the fallacy of supporters of MMD
Those who are talking about tribe/region are narrow minded good for nothing humans on this blog. if someone is qualified for the job let him be appointed regardless of what tribe! it’s like saying because KK came from the north, Chiluba from Luapula, Mwanawasa from central/copperbelt and now RB from East then the next presido should come from Southern, Western, Northwestern, Lusaka e.t.c regardless of their abilities to deliver. I personnaly think that is shallow mindedness!
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH # 23 PA WEMBA!! THAT INFO COMPARES VERY WELL WITH MY FILES LEADING TO APPOINTMENT OF NOW EX MD. THATS FROM FACTS FILES!
Ba Nyirenda nibo punzila
Ba Nyirenda nibo punzila no masobela
You Zambians are messed up in the head!!!! Doctor Nyrenda was the most valiable asset to your power company…You all need to sit down with your government and sell your country. Each on of the 11 million zambians should receive $200,000 each and leave that beautiful land to people who will do the right thing!!!!!!!! I demand my share of Zambia be SOLD TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER!!!!!! its my right!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, RB is a joker. He thinks he can take everyone for a ride. Chikaba
Politicians are a ruthless lot blindly driven by selfish cravings. I have people of Dr Nyirenda calibre who don’t last. I remember one Dr Kunda at ministry of finance who was developing a donor funded computer software to track all public expenditure in govt ministries. Because he was a no nonsense guy, some big wigs in the ministry flushed him out and brought incompetents who have never done one damn thing. I remember one guy who exposed some big financial scam in ZRA to the then Minister Katele Kalumba. Before the week ended his contract was prematurely terminated. You have to be rotten too to stay.
This is now confusing. the DOC was the right person to head Zesco. If this is the way we shall run our Public companies..then let us privitise them all.
Give the job to VJ!