Ndola Mayor Jones Kalyati has condemned Mongu Mayor Nyambe Muyumbana for returning back half of the two-night allowance from the recent Lusaka special meeting on local authorities chaired by President Hakainde Hichilema.
Mr. Muyumbana on 17th August, 2022 retired K1, 500 which was part of the daily subsistence allowance after his two-day meeting in Lusaka was cut short.
Some people saluted the Mongu Mayor for the gesture but his Ndola counterpart Mr. Kalyati has questioned whom Mr. Muyumbana wanted to impress by retiring the K1, 500.
The Ndola Mayor said he actually spends more than the council provides as he utilises his trips to Lusaka to lobby development for his city from various ministries.
“I want to mention that actually that the money I was given to go to Lusaka was not even enough. When I am in Lusaka I have got important things to do. He (Muyumbana) does not have anything to do and he must be ashamed of himself. When I finish my meetings in Lusaka I spend more days because I have so much to do with Ministries. The people of Ndola sent me to Lusaka to find out what is going to be done to Ndola roads. You know Ndola roads are so bad, they are pathetic, they are impassable. So I go to Ministries. I go to the Ministry of Local Government, I go to the Ministry of Health, and I go to all ministries,” Mr. Kalyati said.
“I take time to visit these ministries so when they give me three days sometimes I spend five days and I keep funding myself. What is supposed to be done is talk to these ministries so that development can come. An honourable that goes like him he even goes boasting that I have returned a K1, 500, what is a K1, 500 going to do? When I am in Lusaka I go to look for much more money to bring into Ndola. So taking back a K1, 500 is mediocre. It is a lack of thinking. Who do I want to impress by returning a K1, 500? By the way we were given money for three days then someone returned a K1, 500, our meeting ended at 20:00 hours that man left before the meeting was actually concluded. It means he is an absent mayor. It should never happen,” Mr. Kalyati continued.
“People of Ndola I want to assure you that whenever I go to Lusaka. I present all the questions you ask me. I know you ask me questions on the roads, I know you ask me questions on schools, and you ask me questions on every development in the city. I have no time to waste. Those people have every time to waste and that is why he can return the money. I cannot return the money. That is why I need much more money if the council cannot sponsor me. I am coming to reach out to well wishers in the city so that they sponsor my being in Lusaka, so that I can look for what they want. I need to bring food and put it on the table. I am their city father,” he said.
Mr. Kalyati concluded:”I have no time to waste, let them waste time, I will spend time talking to ministries and by the way we were talking to the President (Hakainde Hichilema) when he (Muyumbana) actually ran away. I don’t know what he took back to the people of Mongu. I have got so much coming through to my office and the President gave a very good address. I picked a lot of things I am running with like a baton. “
Meanwhile, concerned citizen Mupishi Jones has asked President Hakainde Hichilema to consider honoring Mr. Muyumbana for being honest.
“What an honest leader! I’m sure even where our Almighty God is sitting on his Holy Throne is happy to have such individuals still surviving especially in Africa and Zambia in particular. This act from the Mayor may appear to be very strange in Zambia because of the past PF regime environment where we’re coming from,” Mr. Mupishi stated.
Ndola Mayor is right. Local governance systems are not fully decentralized so once a Mayor or DC travel to Lusaka, he should utilize the time. However, it could also mean the Mongu Mayor may have some issues to attend to. If not, then he’s a lazy man.
The Ndola mayor should know……….
Public office is mostly sacrifice for the people………
Not crying about not having enough money……….
Ba Lsk Times, edit your work, it’s returning, not retiring.
And I disagree with the Ndola Mayor. He appears not to know the confines of his job. Mayors don’t have to lobby from central government, that’s what MPs are for among other things.
Mayors (together with town clerks and council chairpersons) must find ways of making their local cities/districts profitable and should contribute to national coffers. It’s not their jobs to be in Lusaka begging for money. Imagine if all mayors from the country did that.
Actually, it’s retiring, and it’s also returning.
Both are correct.
To Retire Imprest is a technical term in accountancy to mean: the process of giving an account or explaining to the account section or accountant with supporting documents such as receipts and invoices, about how an amount collected from the accounts section for official use was spent.
I believe that the Ndola Mayor, Mr. Jones Kalyati is a zealous and a diehard PF cadre, with the same familiar philosophy of: ‘ubomba mwibala, alila mwibala’, with no shame . He goes to Lusaka with no plans at all. He seems not to understand that he is on a salary. He needs to know that he is not a volunteer but a hired worker.
When Mr. Kalyati is galavanting in Lusaka from one ministry to another, who does he see, talk to or meet? Is it ministers or permanent secretaries or directors of departments? What other personal submissions does he make that are not already in the city council development plans ?
ACC should start investigating the government officials that he frequents while he is in Lusaka.
Zambia needs a few more men and women of Mr. Muyambana’s character, the Mayor of…
Sometimes its best to just keep quiet…the article says Mongu Mayor returned his alloawance after his trip was cut short meaning all Mayors trips were cut short but Ndola Mayor is merely trying to justifying using his allowance by so doing exposing himself as not being good with time management. These morons think that being a councillor is a full-time job hence do not know their job roles no wonder he thinks the allowance is not enough.
The Mayor is a full time job since the dawn of the Third Republic
Ndola mayor has lost the point. It’s the principle that matters. If in all fairness your conscious tells you to do the right thing when it comes to public funds, do it. This what HH is preaching about time & again to appeal to public office bearer’s conscious to always account for each cent of public funds. If public officials start accounting for small change they will do the right thing with colossal sums of public funds. Ndola mayor speak for yourself, don’t attack those who are accounting for their public funds expenses.
Just be yourselves. Hh is rich off the back of poor people and yet he wants you to live poor.
It’s difficult to comment when one’s parents are quarreling. But Ndola mayor should concern himself with Ndola affairs.
So what does your first sentence mean?
Are you so dull you can’t understand a simple thing like that. These are two mayors who are not supposed to quarrel in public.
They are from opposing parties so they are bound to quarrel
Indeed it can be ‘returning’ or ‘retiring’ but it can not be ‘returning back’ …
Its unfortunate that the Ndola Mayor does not understand the simple principle of accountability. If he wants to stay for a longer period in Lusaka, that is ok, but the funding of his prolonged stay should come from a different kitty not the one that was designated for the meeting. In fact, all the mayors should return the one day DSA since the meeting was cut short. Remember accountability needs to start in very small things. The Ndola Mayor is certainly not setting a good example for his team.
Yes…… Ndola mayor should concern himself with Ndola affairs. He sounds very much out of sync with the new way of doing things in Zambia.
If you are paid for two nights and you only stay one night then you are by law and all intended purposes supposed to refund back the money for one night. You can’t justify spending it on this and that because that was not the intended purpose. This actually means you have diverted funds to other used for which people like that zamtel MD have even been jailed. All those mayor’s whose trip was cut short but failed to pay back for the other night including this nincompoop from ndola must be arrested and charged for not retiring impress and misuse of public funds.
What you are saying is true but the way these public servants are allocated money is to blame because they get lump sums whose arbitrary spend they are allowed to explain when retiring.
What you are saying is true but the way these public servants are allocated money may be to blame because they get lump sums whose arbitrary spend they are allowed to explain when retiring.
What you are saying is true but the way these public servants are allocated money may be to blame because they get lump sums whose arbitrary spend they are allowed to explain when retiring.
Instead of going to ministries, use email Mr Mayor. Ndola roads are terrible , street lights non existent.
They cant repair that section at the Golf club for decades.