Selfish demands
Selfish demandsBy Editor
Sunday October 07, 2007 [04:00]
The thinking of some of our political leaders is not only amazing, but also very discouraging. It is very difficult to appreciate how a civic leader who is expected to understand well the state of our local authorities in the country can start making demands which will only further strangulate the local authorities.
The job of a local authority leader - a councillor - is ideally supposed to be for purposes of service to the local community, without necessarily expecting much in terms of material gain.
The contribution of our councillors to our troubled local authorities should be premised on the need to arrive at accumulation of resources for the entire local community, not for personal gain in favour of those in local leadership.
Unfortunately, some of our civic leaders want to turn these otherwise part-time duties into their own sources of income. This is not correct and it should never be tolerated.
Our councils are already in precarious situations and it will not be helpful, nor can it be wise, for anyone to ever think of starting to divert limited resources for emoluments of councillors who perform their duties on a part-time basis. And the earlier our councillors begin to understand this, the better.
If anything, given the fact that councilors are involved in the running of local authorities, we would like to believe that they have a better understanding of the state of funding to local authorities and they are therefore the least expected to be in the forefront of making demands that border on nothing but selfish personal gratification.
We are not saying that there should be no logistics extended to councillors in terms of assisting them with such genuine things as transport allowance.
What we find unacceptable is for the councillors to think that their duties and responsibilities should be elevated to a full-time status. Our understanding is that councilors are there for civic duties, to help solve problems for their localities by formulating by-laws and other policies targeted at achieving some of the programmes that the local authorities are involved in.
Truly, we are among those who still believe that the position of councillors or any local level leader for that matter is actually central in the development processes at that level. So, we would be the last ones to undermine or denigrate the position of councillors in our system of government.
However, we do not believe that it would be right for us to sit by and watch as some local leaders start to deviate from the real purpose of their office. In any case, we all know that local authorities employ full-time employees who are tasked with the responsibility of translating into action whatever plans or policies the part-time local leaders come up with.
And we believe this is the best way to run local authorities because it is cost effective and efficient and it provides authorities with the opportunity to employ a qualified cadre of council officers who are well-suited to implement the councils’ policies and programmes.
There are many cases we can point at where efficient and effective management by well-qualified council employees has resulted into the desired goal of self-sufficiency and self-dependency in our local authorities.
So, instead of our councillors pursuing personal interests such as increased sitting allowances or conditions equivalent to those of full-time employees, they are better advised to focus their attention on what, as civic leaders tasked with civic responsibilities, they intend to do to beef up the financial and operational capacities of their particular local authorities.
This is what we expect from our councillors, not demands which are clearly motivated by selfish interests. Of course we are not asking our councillors to start promising to build bridges even where there are no rivers because it is not possible to easily surmount all the challenges that our councils face.
However, since we expect that councillors are fully aware of both their duties and responsibilities as well as the challenges of their communities, we expect that they have enough commitment and an added instinct of service to their communities and therefore should do more troubleshooting than asking for higher pay for work which they do more on a voluntary basis.
Well, those affected and indeed interested in this debate for an increment of allowances have advanced several reasons for their position.
For instance, Kitwe mayor Divo Katete argues that some councillors are not in full-time employment or some economic activity and will therefore appear destitute if they are not looked after by the central government.
First of all, it must be understood very clearly that the central government already has many responsibilities and obligations, including its continued financial support to local government administration.
And in the event that the central government had abundant resources to extend to local government administration, it would still be a wasteful expedition if the resources were channeled to councillors’ allowances at the expense of the real needs of local communities.
Mayor Katete goes on to say: “Some people weigh that why should they give up good jobs when there is nothing in being a councillor. But if they were better paid, they would consider it. When you look at councillors, we don’t have someone who is a doctor or someone who holds a degree or masters.
Like now we are talking about decentralisation... for us to attract quality people who understand decentralisation, it is important for government to improve the conditions of councillors.”
Well, these concerns cannot be completely dismissed because they contain some truth. However, we are more inclined to agree with former Kitwe mayor Luxon Kazabu when he says that money should not come into the picture in civic leadership.
As he puts it, the community elects councillors into civic leadership on the basis of their contribution and achievements in the particular areas where they live.
We agree with Kazabu because he himself demonstrated - as Kitwe mayor while at the same time holding a senior position in a multinational company - that one could offer themselves for community work only for the purposes of service and not monetary gain. And this is how things should be done.
Therefore, instead of paying attention to issues such as allowances which will have very little or no effect on the development of local areas, perhaps our councillors should start to come to terms with the real purpose and meaning of civic leadership. We need to make our civic leaders understand that theirs’ is a service to the community and not a form of employment. It is important that these facts are clearly distinguished.
We really look forward to a time when politicians will find it necessary to embrace sacrifice as a virtuous good.
posted by MrK @ 6:54 AM
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