Help our people

Help our people
Written by Editor

Rupiah Banda’s lack of seriousness is very costly to this country. It is heart-breaking that at a time when the nation needs hope, reassurance and encouragement, Rupiah is doing nothing except to bring hopelessness. The crisis in our hospitals is not a small thing. It is a gigantic problem that requires inspirational leadership if it is going to be resolved. But as we said yesterday, instead of addressing the plight of the workers in a serious and focused way, Rupiah chose to treat the nation to comedy .

We are not surprised that our brothers and sisters in the medical fraternity are taking the hardened stance that is apparent now. Rupiah has no capacity to inspire anyone – not even the monkies that he lives with at State House. This explains why Rupiah is so quick to resort to threats, intimidation and in the case of dealing with journalists, encouraging violence.

Rupiah cannot command loyalty on the basis of morality and a life dedicated to high principles and virtues. With this handicap, he is quickly resorting to tactics of carrot and stick. This is why the people closest to him must always be singing one meaningless praise or another on a daily basis. If they don’t, they might find themselves in trouble because Rupiah cannot deal with the truth. Rupiah wants to be flattered.He wants to deal with those who are ready to be boot-lickers and praise singers.

This is the problem that he has with us. He wants us to praise him when he has done nothing deserving any praise. We will continue to say that unless Rupiah changes his approach, he is doomed to failure.

This would be fine if such failure were his alone, but unfortunately, his incompetence and failure to lead has a direct impact on our people.

This is what we saw the other day when he addressed his second press conference since becoming President. He lamentably failed to inspire any confidence on any of the issues that are important to our people. His government is failing to deal with the strike action by the health workers.

Rupiah showed the whole nation that he doesn’t care and cannot be bothered about the plight of the nation. It was frightening to see how he tried to trivialise his failure to lead. Rupiah also showed marked levels of insensitivity when he discussed his own medical requirements. When a journalist asked him to comment on a call made by the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions that leaders should be treated in Zambia, he said he could not go to our hospitals to have his knee attended to, saying: “… so if all the doctors are on strike, like when I was in South Africa, the doctors were on strike here and the nurses, I should have brought my broken leg and say akanikonze when there was a strike?”

In saying what he said, Rupiah proved his insensitivity and lack of care for our people. We say this because first and foremost what was Rupiah doing in South Africa when the entire medical sector had closed down in Zambia due to industrial action? What kind of President leaves such a crisis in his country to go and attend a conference – to wine and dine with the rich and famous of the world? During this same period the education sector was also paralysed by strike action. And yet Rupiah saw it fit to go to Chililabombwe to watch football – bola! After watching football, having bypassed the striking workers at Ndola Central Hospital and Kitwe Central Hospital, Rupiah flew to Zimbabwe and from Zimbabwe to Cape Town. And when he sneaked back into Zambia, for what we imagine is a short visit before heading off on another ‘important tour’, he has virtually been silent on all the important issues the nation is facing. When Rupiah opened his mouth on Wednesday, it was total disaster.

Rupiah is telling our people that when he is sick, it does not matter that there is strike at home; after all, he can get his treatment in Cape Town. The message that this careless statement sends is that Rupiah does not care about the striking workers because there is no real risk to his health or that of his friends and relatives. They can get treated in South Africa. What kind of President is this? What kind of leader is this?

It is this kind of attitude that is annoying our brothers and sisters in the medical sector who are taking a very hard stance at the moment.

There is no denying that Rupiah has failed to provide leadership on this issue, just like on many other issues before. This is why he can arrogantly say that it is not his job to ensure that the negotiations with the workers are done. If it is not the job of the President to ensure that the government machinery is running and delivering according to the people’s expectation, then whose job is it? What is Rupiah’s job? This is why we say Rupiah thought going to State House was an extended holiday. He did not think that being President demands hard work.

At his press conference Rupiah clearly told our people who work for the government that it is not his job to deal with their problems. This is the kind of President we have. This is a kind of leader Rupiah is. We are very sure that if his knee did not need constant messaging, he would have been on the road or in the air going somewhere. Rupiah is a kamwendo munjira – he cannot sit still and do the job that he is paid for.

How can this man inspire our health workers to go back to work, when he seems to have problems even inspiring himself to work? Anyway, no serious person should rely on Rupiah for inspiration. If anyone was in doubt, Wednesday’s press conference should clear such doubt.

This is a man who receives photographs sent to his government in their capacity as government which depict the gruesome consequences of the current strike and instead he and his shameless supporters choose to see pornography in the suffering of a poor woman!

This is why almost two weeks ago we pleaded with our brothers and sisters in the medical fraternity to find a way of getting back to work. We were not saying this out of insensitivity or a lack of appreciation of their plight. We were pleading because we recognised Rupiah’s recklessness. As long as he and his family are happy and able to access medical care, he doesn’t care about anybody else. This is the message Rupiah gave on Wednesday. Our call to the medical fraternity is to find a way to surmount Rupiah’s pettiness and help our people who desperately need their services. We continue to make this plea with heavy hearts because we cannot dispute the grievances that the medical personnel are making. We can only say please help our people.

We make this plea because of what we see in Rupiah. We do not think he is bothered to check the statistics of our people who are dying because of the current strike. Rupiah has chosen to ignore our people. We must find a way of moving forward inspite of this insensitive and selfish man.

On Wednesday, he was pretending to be concerned about government expenditure on things such as foreign trips, but we all know that excessive amounts of money are being spent on his trips. Is Rupiah going to lead by example? We doubt. This is not the way Rupiah views leadership. It is not long ago that he took a delegation of forty to fifty people, including his children, to Zimbabwe to go and see the tree he used to climb as a child at government expense. Maybe we are wrong, maybe his children reimbursed Cabinet Office the money government spent on them on their trip to Zimbabwe.

This is the Rupiah the nurses are dealing with. Our people are more precious than this selfish man. Help our people.