The Examinations Council of Zambia has defended the decision to erect two statues at the entrance to the institution after a social media campaign was launched to have them pulled down.
Lusaka based motivational speaker Mubita Nawa over the weekend launched a Facebook campaign dubbed #NotZambia@50 where he denounced the ugly state of the art pieces and called on Zambians to push the ECZ to have them removed.
Mr. Nawa had contended that the statues were ugly and did not represent the modern day Zambia.
But ECZ Spokesperson Ronald Tembo said the institution has taken time to study the postings on social media by Mr Nawa and has concluded that the debate on the art pieces was over blown.
“We wish to state that the ECZ is a public institution which has an open door policy. From the outset, we therefore acknowledge receipt of the opinions from Mr Nawa and the general public on the issue,” Mr Tembo said in a statement.
He added, “We therefore wish to inform the public that the purpose for putting the statues at the entrance of the ECZ was to enable the general public to easily locate the ECZ as they came through to access various Council services.”
“The statues therefore arose from various complaints we received from those who could not easily locate us in the past. We did not necessarily intend to have beautiful and expensive pieces of art work as we could and still cannot afford the cost of such art works.”
Mr Tembo said the ECZ shall consult administratively in accordance with its operational procedures and structures and take appropriate action to ensure that this issue reaches its logical conclusion.
He also stated that there was no corruption involved in erecting the statues as all procurement procedures were followed.
Yuk!!! For real they are ugly, who would be proud of such ugly legs on a woman. Please tear them down. Add my vote to the campaign. For sure there are Zambians who can do better than this. I hope they were not done by President Sata’s nephwe because we shall have to wait till after 2016 to tear them down
join the campaign on Facebook (Notzambiaat50) and demand better statues. We will fund-raise to erect better quality
ECZ STATUES: Surely those statues are the worst an institution of ECZ magnitude can erect. The Institution’s image has been diluted to the worst. Such statues are better off placed at UNZA. ECZ is not an academic institution. Even at the entrance of UNZA, you can not put such useless and UGLY statues. Please adhere to our negative comments. Put something depicting voting system, arrangements or anything to do with VOTING IN ZAMBIA
Any is the woman on a low platform and a man on a higher one. Is it a woman on top kind of thing? heheheheheh! indeipusha fyafye.
The artist made the male statue shorter and, instead of going back to the drawing board, he simply made a platform to level them out, This will be a controversy with gender activists.
These statutes guys are thoroughly ugly. Take them down
Easy location doesn’t mean you can put up any rubbish. We need some dignity in the art we employ. We have inexpensive artists who can do better than this. They should have held a competition. #Notzambiaat50
There is no need to defend shoddy works- Nawa is right. We need to consider quality in everything we do. Quality gives a competitive edge. Just a few weeks ago a person who visited Zambia was embarrassing some Zambians about the dirty at Lusaka Downtown area. We need to always strive for the best. Folks we can certainly do better.
By the way, how much went to paying for these unsightly pieces- I hope there was no Kidogo business.
Oh my word! who did that? Zambia has renowned artists and sculptors. Bring them down, like right now! and while at it, please remove that chicken monument at the traffic circle from the airport.
Chete what is wrong with that chicken?Just concentate on the ECZ debate that is why you fail.You bring in a very irrelevant issue over a matter that you may not be able to convince those out there.
Whenever there’s shoddy work in Zambia, just know that there was corruption involved. Pull down these ugly things and engage experts to put up nice statues. In Zambia, we do not have women with such low hanging hips. Bushe tamwakaleke corruption mu Zambia? Everything is sickening in that country.
So laughable! This is indefensible! Instead of wasting time debating with earless Nawa lets just do a Boko Haram on the statues and the debate will be over!
This must be the most dull PR person. The issue is not about ease of locating ECZ but the sub-standard sculptures that we want pulled down and replaced by professional ones. Period.
Why not debate on the substandard quality of pupils ECZ is churning out….only good at using text language.
I also add my voice to many others.
Both images are ugly and too childish.
The different platform elevations are clearly opinionated and offensive. They simply cannot be defended.
Take them away.
STUPID ECZ… KWATI FYAKULILA KU MUSHI… BA SWAINI
They are too ugly please have the person who authorised payment for them arrested.
A modern poster/road sign would have given more location signage than those ghostly statues will ever do . Just look at the simple but effective poster at the entrance to Unza, which has an old, but better statue far away from the entrance
Pa Zed, almost everything is shoddy works. what kind of Art is this?? 50 years after independence??
Too ugly for a second glance. Please tear them down. Who ever made them never went to art school.
Awe kwena kwati nifikadoli olo ama ‘Aliens’. Tulebako serious.
For sure they are ugly. I support Nawa. Moreover, the statue says nothing about the location of ECZ. What is in that statue to tell me that I have reached ECZ offices? A billboard is enough to direct people.
These sculptures are ugly; and to think that they are standing at the examinations Council of Zambia is unthinkable. Pull them down!
Just hide the legs, the rest is fine. But meanwhile, how much did this cost?
Point is, this dznt answer Qn of ECZ location, sub-std exams (leakeges) produced by ECZ, sub-std graduates and cost of the procurement of this project, nor how low the female hips are…………….Lollll!!
I don’t like them either. And who told Mr. Tembo that beautiful art has to be expensive? There are definately a lot of gifted Zambians artists who can put up excellent works without demanding too much. No need to raise Michaelangelo from the dead.
is defending because that how his gandparents looked like haa kanshi ni tembo I knew his grands where exactly this kadolis
The unfortunate part of Zambians of nowadays is that they have nothing tangible to do with their lives and want to be seen to oppose anything just to do anione anione. It would be interesting to see what this Nawa owns and what he does in his life, what type of personal home, (if he has one) he lives in and how he looks after his folks in the village. Zambians grow up and be reasonable.
Can we talk about clean city with organized transport system and no potholes Please!!!!!!!!!!!
When I saw those statutes, I could not believe an institution of ECZ calibre would
condone such work, and worse still offer such lame excuse for them. I may not be an expert on sculpture but this is totally unacceptable. Whoever commissioned them should be charged with the full cost and the money used as a deposit to pay one of the many talented artists to erect an acceptable monument. I also suggest the PR officer be sent on early retirement to avoid further damage to our institutions
Those statues are so old fashioned and look like they were made in the 80’s. In this modern day we need good works of art and not this.
What is the issue here?
Let the statues be . There is a lot of dirty in our city a lot of tu ntembas which are even in the main roads ,women and men cooking on the road side . I think there are worse happening in our country
Thanks for ever bringing this kind of issue on board. if this status is what could be term as a product if fine art then, I have to denounce and change my course in my school where I study visual art. I am an artist, a sculpture specializing student in the university of Uyo, Nigeria. Those so called artist (roadside) who has never for once had any element or principles of design thought always running into big works of art they know they can never do. Shame on those involved in having this kind of Paleolithic piece of art erected. are we not proud of the sort of art pieces in the west? yet, we can not encourage those who suffered spending time in fine-art colleges in Africa for contract like this. Break those things down! anyone who need to feel the quality of a standard sculptural…