By Sean Tembo – PeP President
1. Some things we can argue about while other things are inarguable. It is inarguable that President Hakainde Hichilema has the most bloated civil service in the history of Zambia since independence. Despite creating several meaningless Permanent Secretary (PS) positions at Cabinet Office and appointing PSs in addition to Directors to head Departments at Ministries such as Home Affairs, Sports, Youth & Culture, having two economic advisors at State House etcetera, he has now proceeded to create an additional layer of bureaucracy at State House, called the Presidential Delivery Unit (PDU).
2. Evidently, the President is trying to compensate for his lack of management skills by having a bloated civil service. He believes, wrongly so of course, that the larger the civil service, the greater the chance that he will deliver on his basic mandate of uplifting the living standards of the Zambian people. But he is very wrong. The only way to compensate for the lack of management skills in a leader is for that leader to, first of all, appoint competent subordinates, and secondly allow those subordinates to operate autonomously, without interference from the incompetent leader.
3. But the case of President Hakainde Hichilema is one of double tragedy. In fact, it is one of the triple tragedies. I say so because firstly it is inarguable that the President himself is incompetent and lacks even the most basic of management skills. Secondly, the President has failed to appoint competent subordinates, but has instead appointed senior civil servants on the basis of patronage to his political party; the UPND, as well as on the basis of kinsmanship. Thirdly, President Hakainde Hichilema does not believe in the delegation. He believes in having his hands in every little activity that his Government is engaged in at any given time, despite his inherent incompetence.
4. This is the reason why the quality of decisions coming from Hakainde Hichilema’s Government are below par. You find a state institution such as NAPSA lending money to foreigners so that they can construct the Lusaka – Ndola road and collect toll fees for 25 years and calls it a PPP project!!! Instead of increasing the number of oil refineries so that eventually there can be one in every provincial center, he kills the only one that we have and converts it into a storage facility, thereby killing all industries that depended on heavy fuels and bitumen, such as Ndola Energy Company which was an independent power producer. Instead of reducing the price of key production inputs such as fuel and electricity, he increases them substantially and then wonders why the cost of living is ever going up!!!
5. Indeed, President Hakainde Hichilema has not made a single sensible, publicly known decision, ever since he ascended to the presidency. If l believed in witchcraft, l would have thought that he has been bewitched. That someone has cast a spell on him so that he should always make bad decisions for our country. But the problem is not about witchcraft, it is about his management style or lack thereof. The key issue is that despite being inherently incompetent, he holds a false belief that he is super competent. And since he believes that he is super-competent, he brushes off anyone around him who seeks to offer him advice. And when it becomes apparent that his decisions are not yielding fruits, he simply goes and employs more people and creates more departments such as this so-called Presidential Delivery Unit. May God have mercy on our nation.
And it’s growing.
i HAVE ALSO SEEN THAT PRESIDENT’S FACE IS BLOATED.AN INDICATION OF WHAT? MAY BE HE NEEDS TO TAKE A REST .
I CANT REMEMBER LAST TIME OR FIRST TIME HE TOOK A VACATION. ALL I REMEMBER IS THAT HE HAD GONE TO HIS FARM IN KALOMO. EVEN THERE HE WAS BUSY CHECKING AND AUCTIONING ON HIS HERD OF CATTLE. THE PRESIDENT NEED A BREAK AND REST A LITTLE BIT. ALL WORK MAKES JACK A DULL BOY.
What is happening is that the civil service has become so bloated we won’t have money to pay staff. HH will find himself printing money and the Kwacha will turn into the Zimdollar. When the currency becomes worthless black markets will run the economy and with a worthless currency inefficiency will take hold
I agree , the president does not delegate. This president does not trust in the abilities of his surbodinates(Vice President, Ministers). He wants to to the job of the foreign minister by taking every opportunity to jump on the next plane. If he had a way he would have bn in parliament everyday answering on behalf of the “competent” Vice president. He knows Jack very well….so he takes the management of ACC and DEC to state hoouse…… He manages the Energy ministry while Kapala talks .
He is the provincial minister for Copperbelt because he does not trust Matambo. He does not believe in the party SG and his deputy(The two “competent” Imendas). So he manages the party from Community house.
HE TRUSTS NO ONE including MUSOKOTWANE and MILUPI. He knows it all.
Very true. He’s a one man show.
You speak with wisdom Sean Tembo but that is same way we thought when we voted for HH that he had wisdom and able to fix things. We thought Lungu was the most incompetent President this country had ever had but now that we removed the devil and brought an angel, awe sure. Only bazungus are happy with him
THE PEOPLE WE USED TO KNOW AS WISE MEN ARE NOW ABSOLUTELY FAKE WISE MEN. THEY DONT EVEN UNDERSTAND THE PRINCPLE OF DELIGATION. MINISTERS, PS,DCS, COMMISSIONED , AMBASSADORS , DIRECTORS ETC ARE ALL DLELEGATED BY THE PREIDENT. WHATEVER THEY DO, IT IS DONE ON BEHALF OF THE PRSIDENT. THERE re many invitations that zambia is ever receiving . for some, no substitute is needed and the president has to go. for those that need any substitute, the president is ever dclegating. one thing that should be understood is that hh is usually needed in pe and he takes advantages to invite investors and solicit for grants
You don’t need to solicit for investors. These people are like flies which follow where there are feces. DRC is a violent country but investors are flocking there without being solicited.
This is the president who promised Zambians to reduce the number of government positions and save some money.
Let him be deceived by the number of appointments.
Next he will reintroduce the position of deputy minister. Just wait.
Sean Tembo you are a wrong chap completely. Just criticism with no solutions and remarks on witchcraft….how can we develop with such opposition? Bring out real matters of substance especially on the economy, see how your friend Fred Mmembe is doing, that is the real role of opposition. Insults will not serve any purpose at all.
His face looks bloated too
He only delegated his ministers to Nc’wala Ceremony and Day of Prayers respectively.He is stressing himself. No wonder, he has started insulting his predecessor. 30 more trips without assigning it to his colleagues?He is very selfish and egocentric.He has no trust and confidence in his subordinate.