Thursday, March 28, 2024

The mini cabinet reshuffle did little to inspire confidence among Zambians

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File:President Edgar Chagwa Lungu (left) chairs the 17th Cabinet meeting at State House in Lusaka on Monday, October 1,2018. PICTURE BY SALIM HENRY/STATE HOUSE ©2018

A senior member of the ruling Patriotic Front has appealed to President Edgar Lungu to reconstitute his cabinet and to quickly set up a team of elders who should be advising him on political issues.

The official who is a member of the PF Central Committee choose to remain anonymous because she is not authorized to speak to media but stressed that most Ministers in the cabinet are not working.

She said the recent mini-reshuffle did very little to inspire confidence among Zambians.She said the recent changes to cabinet can be described as cosmetic.

“The general feeling is that President Lungu is carrying with him a lot of deadwood in that cabinet. Even us in the Central Committee fear that going to a general election with the kind of people close to President Lungu will be disastrous,” she stated.

She added, “ With the next election only 17 months away, the people sitting in cabinet are not helping the President, the majority of those are merely serving their personal interests.”

The official singled out President Affairs Minister Freedom Sikazwe as someone who has failed to effectively executive his duties.

“All we see him (Sikazwe) is smiling and clapping around the President. A State House Minister ought to be active and offer support to the boss(President Lungu) but Mr Sikazwe fails to do so. The country has had previous Presidential Affairs Minister who were far more active. Let Mr Sikazwe learn and emulate Erick Silwamba when he served as Dr Chiluba.”

She said President Lungu should transfer Dr Dennis Wanchinga from the Ministry of Water Development to Luapula Province and move Charles Banda from Local Government to Eastern Province.

The official further suggested that Kantanshi Member of Parliament Anthony Mumba be appointed as Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister replacing Christopher Yaluma who should be dropped.

“Even President Lungu himself, knows that he has a lot of people who are simply liabilities. This is not the time to carry emotions but time to work and deliver before we lose power.”

“The new Sports and Youth Development Minister Hon. Mulenga should be taken to the Copperbelt Province and drop Mwakalombe. Charles Banda should go to Eastern Province and transfer Bowman Lusambo to either State House or Local Government.”

She also suggested that the Minister of Lands Jean Kapata he moved to Ministry of Gender or Community Development while Hon. Sydney Mushanga should be taken to the Ministry of Water and Sanitation.

“The current Minister of Gender be moved to Lusaka Province while Ronald Chitotela should be out of Cabinet altogether.”

Other changes suggested include that of Nickson Chilagwa whom she said would do well at Tourism while Makebi Zulu be transferred to the Ministry of Justice with Given Lubinda moving to Livestock and Fisheries.

Meanwhile, President Lungu has been advised to quickly set up a team of elders who should be advising him on political issues.

“It’s worrying that President Lungu doesn’t have a team of eminent elders to whom he could be receiving wisdom on governance issues. People like Kaizer Zulu cannot be political advisers as they lack wisdom.”

29 COMMENTS

  1. Why can’t this person raise that in the central committee meetings? This is not the right platform to air your grievances. We have cowards representing us as MCC. Or are you telling us that there is no democracy in the PF governing body?

    • True. This is either a madeup article by someone in the opposition to make the president look silly or a job seeking crap

    • I didn’t know that PF have such levelheaded people as the anonymous member being referred to in this article. Can ECL sit down with such people and pick up one or two things to implement?

    • I don’t know why you MCC start saying she should raise concerns in meeting. This is right forum to discuss, let her talk.
      Those who raise voices before have been pushed out, recently was Kalaba and Kambwili.

    • Dear Editor,
      We as offices at the Zambia airforce & zambia national service would like to express our sadness through your platform .
      Defense Minister Davis Chamas daughters have given us hell at our two institutions, they have taken over most of the procurements even Minus having the ability .
      The armed forces have a procedure of how they procure anything, but as we speak everything has gone into the hands of the three daughters of Davis Chama, they use him and bulldoze themselves to every office. You can imagine that they actually command our commanders Muma (ZAF) and Mulenga ( ZNS)
      As we speak, Muma our Commander has Given them many projects which include the supply of our uniforms. This has never happened before because for security reasons our uniforms must come from within the…

    • … for security reasons our uniforms must come from within the system but as we speak they have gone to India to get our uniforms and supply other things.
      This has never happened in the history of the military but only under PF.
      We need a voice to speak for us!
      Concerned Officers.

    • I agree with the PF elder on Given Lubinda and Jean Kapata. Both these Ministers are ill qualified for the portfolios they hold. The Constitutional amendment bill is as a result of having some NRDC certificate graduate as Minister of Justice.

  2. There is really no point in changing the monkeys while the forest remains unchanged.
    The challenges Zambia faces requires characters of the calibre of Magufuli and kagame, in other words an entirely new mindset, not the plunderer mindset that is prevailing in our current cohort of misleaders

  3. the reshuffle was just to achieve two goals one open CBU as the current minister was making the president unpopular on the belt two put chitotela accused corruption guy to a ministry that the general public won’t be hearing from him as much because it was making the president unpopular too… spin it whichever way you think but it’s straight forward just like mumbi phiri wasn’t fired the president needed her mp ship transfered to the current minister of finance there is something in it for her already. let’s start seeing through these maneuvers so we progress

  4. This person is hiding and (s)he only talks about retaining power, what about us who are suffering because of PF. Kick out PF or we will be the next Zimbabwe.
    ECL stands for (E)ffective (C)ash (L)ooter

  5. I stopped reading when the article suggested elders to advise the Predisent…..is she normal? since when have these elders like Chikwanda been ruining our economy while munching masuku on our heads? Worse,her choosing to be anonymous speaks alot about political hegemony within PF that voices of MCC are rarely considered.

  6. I protest, president Lungu should continue with his current PF cabinet. Lungu sees its working well and no one has come out in the open to criticise his style of governance. Zambians only learn about national issues from the media because PF leadership has never seen any relevance for their leader to call for a press conference to address the nation on national matters. Let Lungu keep on with his style of leadership and Zambians will keep on learning from the media and PF fall outs as they are in their 100s if not 000s.

  7. should the team be of bold heads since such r already in cabinet? what does the author mean by team of elders? president lungu shud fire all of them and replace them to rebrand for 2021 period. kampyongo shud be fired, chitotela fired, Dora fired, mails fired, luo fired. simple math, bring kambwili back n give GBM some position to hold the grip on copper belt n northern regions, poach pipe from pond to weaken party n connect with grassroots then pazzle is done

  8. When you become angry at being dropped as nominated Mp and begin to miss life at parley motel you resort to being anonymous, you can run but you cannot hide we know who you are and you are using the wrong platform. Remember at the Kafue meeting you got intoxicated to the point of calling the leader ‘iwe’ ….uhm mayo please take for easy when you come from humble beginnings don’t forget when you are privileged to represent the people. For now chill no foreign service for you like before since you said you preferred to be at home…if you feel anyone needs counsel meet them face to face and give your alderman wisdom.

  9. Erick Silwamba and Derick Chitala were actually performing the duties of the Vice President then, the Vice to Chiluba that time was just a name. Edger is doing a good Job hence all area MPs should learn from him, PF is on positive growth trajectory.

  10. I agree entirely that Charles Banda be transferred to Eastern Province. Hon Chilangwa is the right man to deliver Luapula 100% to PF. Its people like Freedom Sikazwe, Yaluma, Nkandu Luo, Christopher Mvunga and Mwakalombe who needs to be rested. Gean Kapata is a hardworking woman and just needs to be encouraged, uou may not like her but she is hardworking.

  11. I fully agree with the anonymous central committee member on dropping Chitotela (an embarrassment and liability after the acquittal), Kaizer Zulu (what does the President see in that ruffian as advisor), and the comedian Sikazwe (maybe he needs him as a muppet). But add to that list Bowman Lusambo (what does the President see in that thing?).
    But leave Mwakalombe, he is level headed, a performer and a uniter, will be an asset in 2021. Indeed he was excellent replacement for that thing Bowman on the Copperbelt.
    Trouble with that statement is that if the Member thinks cabinet is a problem and should be reshuffled, the insinuation is that the appointing authority does know how to appoint, may need reshuffling himself perhaps? Problem with our President is that his job should be to lead…

  12. …Problem with our President is that his job should be to lead with good advise by more intelligent people than himself, not the less intelligent so that he looks more clever. I can give that advice freely since I am not an MCC or a member of the party. He needs good advice not directives if he wants 2021. Play well and you have my vote in 2021, but come what may no vote for HH from me, sorry.

  13. Atase, ati “the general feeling is that President Lungu is carrying with him a lot of deadwood in that cabinet” when he is the biggest and most combustible piece of dead wood himself!

  14. For sure this is Mumbi Phiri being quoted. She is so narrow and not good at seeing overall national pictures

  15. firstly i can tell that the mcc member has been hired by those provincial ministers wanting to be full cabinet ministers,
    its not about inspiring confidence to the Zambian people but we need solutions that could fix our economy,
    the problem in our cabinet is lack of professionalism, we have teachers handling mining issues, nurses handling land issues, agriculturist handling legal issues, so what do you expect?
    the president should consider reducing his cabinet, also in the short term never renew expired contracts for district commissioners who re doing the same duties with executive council chairperson, and getting almost the same salary, we have district administrators who can do the work of the dc, these two measures can save the treasury about $6m per year,
    introduce performance…

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