Thursday, March 28, 2024

Do regional appointments or firings benefit or Disadvantaged people of region?

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By Isaac Mwanza

A lot has been said about appointments by Republican President Hakainde Hichilema and his administration. The latest being bold sentiments by Dr. Fred M’membe, certainly, one of my favourite politicians of our time, are beginning to silently being believed by average Zambians. But here is my take:

If President Hichilema replaced some head of an institution who hailed from Eastern Province with another one who hails from either Southern or Western Province, how is the firing negatively affecting the entire people of Eastern Province or how is the new appointment benefiting the people of Southern Province as a whole?

Was the replaced person with an Eastern surname sharing his emoluments or benefits or whatsoever with my fellow kinsmen in Eastern Province or will the new person with a Southern or Western surname now be sharing his proceeds with people from the Province he hails from?

Of course, we all must be resolved to never endorse regional or tribal appointments but we equally not pity the entire province against the one person who has been removed nor create a narrative that the newly appointed guy from the other province will now become a blessing to one entire Province. If that was the case, Luapula, Northern, Central and Eastern Provinces would have been the most developed provinces in Zambia?

I don’t see how, having a President who is Bemba or Easterner benefited the entire Bemba speaking province(s) or Eastern as a whole. If anything, Southern Province is one of the most developed provinces in Zambia aside of Lusaka and Copperbelt despite it not having had a President for over half a century after Independence.

All past Presidents in Zambia, including the saintly, Levy Mwanawasa had appointed his kinsmen (including sons, brothers and sisters) or had his lieutenants appointment them to positions of responsibility.

Hakainde Hichilema is not a god to do what others had not humanly done before him. The plain truth is this: things have remained the same as they were before, for our people in our provinces and for those in other provinces.

Many of our ordinary people had no easy ticket to enjoy privileged appointments. Individuals were appointed them and individuals are being appointed now. We must end the false narrative that individuals who were appointed by previous regimes were done on regional basis than they are being done now.

Everyone must know by now that President Hichilema has pressure to reward those who worked him – even those who come from his village and remained loyal to him. President Hichilema is not doing anything different from what all other President did before him. Hakainde Hichilema is into politics and not church.

At least, I have never worked in any government at a time when i was close to President Rupiah Banda or Edgar Lungu. I had a chance to ask for such a favour to join governments and am sure they would have created a position as the current regime has done to many political appointees in government. But Presidents have a country to run and they must choose whom they want to work with to make a difference.

However, the buck stops on President Hichilema personally and his administration to listen and not loosely discard views that may soon take root in the nation about his appointments. He must assess whether they are a break from what past regimes had done. If he thinks the pattern is okay or wrong, well he is the Republican President.

27 COMMENTS

  1. We’re waiting for Sishuwa to give us a balanced view. For 15yrs the UPND isolated itself from the rest of the country. Whoever of their members dared cooperate with Govt was hounded out and Howard Sikwela was one of them. You can even look at the manner in which their strongholds of Southern, Western & North Western provinces voted. They told Wilbur Simuusa that his father was turning in his grave because he had elected to join the PF a Bemba Party. Cornelius Mweetwa wanted to nullify the teacher recruitment in the region because of the non Tonga names on the list. You can’t sanitizer UPND tribal politics. People are being fired on tribal grounds

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    • The repercussions of this may go further than the next elections because people are being taught to be different from their fellow nationals. And therefore to hate each other, My wife who is from Gwembe isteaching in Muchinga and hasbeen very welcome there for 12 years. Now UPND wants to upset the applecart

  2. The PF bemba thives almost destroyed zambia………..

    Looks like the people of western, NW and SP knew all along only what the rest of the country knows now……….

    Laupula was voting 100 % PF until they realised they are voting for a clique of theives………

    Even now look at the contestants for PF presidency, all bemba…………

    They even gathered them selves to visit chitimukulu to seek a tribal legitimacy to rule zambia………..

    It is this same mind set we see where the clique of tribal supremacists theives can’t accept a tonga ruling zambia………….

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    • Bemba thives yet Lungu isnt a Bemba? This tribal hate monger has found a forum to spread anti-Bemba hate speech on LT. And such Rwandan genocide diatribe LT is allowing. Can HH ban this site?

  3. Kambwili told and regional praise singers insulted him and they were heard alas people were fooled.Everyone other tribes are crying.Anyway some of us we knew that man HH is hypocrite.He lies with a strong voice.So far nothing he has achieved.He can’t even build a toilet in 9 months.

  4. Mr. Mwanza should have gone ahead to give his view on whether regionally based appointments in both the PF and UPND government help the country . He should not have feared to be criticized of not having raised these issues when the PF was in power on account of having hailed from the same region as the immediate former President. Mr Mwanza is an opinion-maker and should not desist from making his views known about such matters. Dr. Sishuwa Sishuwa has been very candid about this matter by plainly and correctly stating that the HH GRZ appointments are just as regionally based as were the ECL GRZ appointments. We should as a country be honestly asking ourselves whether we are happy with the continuity of this arrangement. Does it contribute towards helping the citizens of this country work…

  5. … together in promoting common goals of nation-building, democratisation, social justice and the economic development of Zambia when certain sections of the country feel excluded from key decision-making positions in government? This is a question for the past, present and future of this country that needs to be addressed in all honesty.

  6. Just look at the photo and know that this is a Pay Foward cadre if its not writing about tribalism its homosexuality.

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  7. A recruitment strategy that prioritises what the person looks like, the language they speak & where they come from, over skills, is doomed to failure! A wise regime always goes for highly skilled achievers regardless of all aforementioned embellishments. There is no denying that certain tribes are more likely to attract recruitment because of their widely spread higher rate of educational achievement; simply due to their close proximity to the Copperbelt where societal development commenced earlier than in other parts of Zambia. To deny such people a job because they don’t speak your language, is to truly stump your progress.

    #Plant a tree please!

  8. Uncle,I need a job that now you’re…………oh we need to create more space everywhere………….by the way where is Mr Saturation……….he’s eating t-bone to t-bone there…………..I could smell the aroma touching every corner of the…..,………

  9. The enigmatic distribution of bemba tribe on one hand and fluent speakers of the language on the other has seemingly turned some tribal sycophants into frightened little men…paranoids so much scared of their own shadows
    Haven’t the kopala people already shown us that tribalists can go to hell?

  10. Saintly Mwanawasa? You shouldn’t be a propagandist. Haven’t you read of ZNOCgate? In which Zambia lost K838 billion ? Where is this money?Mwanawasa’s nephew
    Njeleka has never told us. wikileaksselect.blogspot.com/2012/08/president-mwanawasa-and-looting-of-k838.html

  11. It’s mostly in the mind that these benefits exist. However conmen, and there’s many of them, will use their tribesmen ascendancy against their rivals just as any corrupt henchman will nepotistically exploit a friend’ s rise to high office. They can then make tribalistic claims and if the leader is weak he will allow this to his nation’s detriment.

  12. PF is the most tribal party since Zambias political independence in 1964. Amongst Lungus Minister only /japhen Mwakalombe and Edify Hamukale were from the Bantu Botatwe ethnic grouping. Hamukale for example suffered isolation, mockery and Humiliations at the Hands of Freedom Sikazwe, Kebby Mbewe and Bowman Lusambo whilst Lungu was watching and indifferent . Lungu looked for weak and coward Tongaz like Hibeene Mwiinga and Paul Moonga to pay to demean their own tribe. Siamunene was picked as Defence minister because he is a grade twelve school leaver and not a graduae who could take over as president. It was all Eastern and Northern appointments all over. HH has even tried to balance his appointments by having many from Muchinga, Northern and Luapula in ministerial position. Dont…

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    • Change Your name from ameno mafupa to ameno litako or chipuba…Your thinking is neasuating. So if a southerner joins a party other than upnd then he or she is weak..what a way of thinking..U should have been condomized pantu U are a disaster waiting to happen.

  13. This pf cadre is still busy writing useless articles to keep himself in the limelight. Just ignore him.

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