Newly appointed National Development Planning Minister Alexander Chiteme has hits the ground running as per his promise to the Zambia people.
Mr. Chiteme on his first day in office met his Senior Management Team.
During the meeting, the Minister called for hard work from the Senior Management Team and staff under their charge, The Minister further assured his team of his full support on all key issues that the Ministry needs to undertake.
During the meeting, Mr. Chiteme emphasised on the need to fully operationalise the project appraisal system to guide implementation of mega national projects.
He further stressed the need to increase absorption capacity of all donor funded projects.
Mr Chiteme directed that all departments should submit monthly reports without fail and that he shall strictly focus on departmental deliverables with a view to check the performance of each Directorate.
The meeting was attended by the two Permanent Secretaries in the Ministry, namely the Permanent Secretary for Planning and Administration Mr. Chola Chabala and the Permanent Secretary for Monitoring and Evaluation Dr. Auxilia Ponga.
The Permanent Secretaries highlighted key fundamental milestones of the Ministry while the Directors briefed the Minister on their key deliverables as Departments.
On Tuesday, the new minister was part of the presidential entourage that visited the cholera centre at Heroes stadium.
keep it up iam with you
This is what we call “job on training”.
He thinks National Planning is a Chipante Pante exercise. U need professional training to Plan and in this area u cannot hit the ground running. U sit down and think,read and Review the current National Plan. This is not a Beer Festival where u can hit the ground running. It tells us that this Minister has no training and capacity to Plan and neither does he understand what the job entails. Economic Planning can only be done by trained Economists of which the Minister is not. Without a Vision People Perish!
Does the Minister plan for the ministry?
That’s a wrong approach ba Chiteme. You cant address the meeting on your first day in any organisation/department. you need to be inducted first then hit the ground. how are you going to understand the system if you are not inducted. Its a bit worrying you even start instructing people to give you reports when you don’t understand how the systems operates.
thats what pipo say when they only know one method of killing a rat. ba Chiteme, you are on the right path. how can one start getting inducted without knowing his inner circle team. before Jesus when to vist and preach to other pipo and the synagogos, he preached to his twelve students- disciples.
mwapurika mbuya?
I am not apf, the minister was right.The heading of the article is misplaced.This is a normal thing to do if one is a real serious leader/manager.It’s not cipante pante.The best way to be aware of aspiration of a given organization/ministry.He met the ministry’s technocrats, not the general staff.
All the permanent secretaries are Easterners and Northerners/Luapulans? Don’t take me wrong. I am a Muchingan but I can still see the injustices done to people from other provinces. Even during apartheid in SA, there were white south Africans who could see the evils of apartheid SA. If you’re calling southerners tribal (which I don’t believe) then you’re not different from them if you’re going to give all serious government appointments to particular tribal groups.
It is believed that all other tribes are upnd therefore can derail government projects like what is happening with the e-farmer.
The problem Zambians confuse Luapula with Northern province. Do you know that some names are just similar in both provinces. And you must look at the back grounds of some of these PSs before exposing your ignorance. Lets not be tribal all the time
chiteme must be sober …
This is sober of approaching technocrats.Unless his objective of the meeting to tell them off.That is how Mr Sata used to learn wherever he was sent and that made him a very effective knowledgeable leader.However, am not apf, but UNIP.
Speed kills
Reading the comments, I can safely conclude ‘Pano calo tapaaba kuwamya!’
Why should we consider tribe when looking at these positions?
It’s competence we need.
Besides,we don’t want to be sabotaged by the usual suspects in implementing national development.
Everywhere they go,all they do is undermine government.
They do it even when they are out of the country.
For now let them sit under the shade while we work.
They will begin to run around and work when Zambia’s “political antichrist” takes over in 2031.
Does it mean any Tonga, Kaonde or Lozi is UPND or any Northerner is pf?That kind of thinking is shallow and retrogressive.We shout One Zambia One Nation but deep in our hearts, we are rotten tribalist and racists.When pf is out of power, will it be justified to leave out Northerners or Easterners from govt appointments based on assumptions that they will frustrate govt effort? I don’t think so.Appointments have to be done on merit because we are all Zambians under one nation.Before God, we are all equal.
having a meeting with management is not hitting the ground running…please.
Excellent comment.The management team is the heart of any organization, including ministries.Keep up chitemene, a fertile akakumba, umufuma amale na tute iyanunkila.
Governing is not an easy thing. It seems easy when you are not the one in charge. Just like a soccer game. Some of these bloggers busy condemning others are themselves the worst performers, no wonder they do not rise to leadership positions. I remember at one time Mandela traveled out of South Africa and delegated Butelezi as acting president to deal with the violence in Zululand. After that experience Butelezi was humbled and stopped making noise because he learnt what it is to president. As a leader, one has to be very patient and poses emotional intelligence, good decision making skills over and above technical competencies in the sector they oversee. One must also be a quick learner with a good aptitude as well as attitude.
To run a ministry like this one does not only need Economics as a qualification, Alexander is a qualified Accountat with ACCA and a Msc Degree in Accounting, that should make make him qualified for the Job. Remember every Job is replaceable and learnable. You all my support Alexander
Yaba mu Zambia Namo ati he has ACCA so he is qualified enough ……. . to be a leader requires more than qualifications, haven’t you noticed that a lot of people who are successful and running big businesses and have employed qualified people like you and me never completed school and don’t even hold degrees. Why is that so? You have a Lusaka mayor who is very qualified but what has he done so far?
You have all my support Alexander
To run a ministry like this one does not only need Economics Only as a qualification, Alexander is a qualified Accountat with ACCA and a Msc Degree in Accounting, that should make make him qualified for the Job. Remember every Job is replaceable and learnable. You all my support Alexander
@4 Umuntu Ni Mbwili. No they are not! I do not know every PS but I know that at the very least PS for Northwestern, Copperbelt and Western Provinces are not from regions that give you sleepless nights. I am not taking you wrong.
Let us give him a year and see if he will still be running. This is a marathon and not short distance race. When you are running short distance you can start off by sprinting really fast but with a marathon it is different . The problem with Zambian politicians they will promise heaven when they are appointed but after few months they became bootlickers and corrupt. Let us watch this space.