Maravi

PF's 90 days in government receives praises, criticism

PF's 90 days in government receives praises, criticism
By Moses Kuwema
Fri 23 Dec. 2011, 14:00 CAT

CARITAS Zambia executive director Sam Mulafulafu says the fight against corruption has been resuscitated in the 90 days of the PF being in government. But former vice-president George Kunda has described the 90 days of the PF in power as a disaster.

Giving his assessment of the 90 days of the PF in power, Mulafulafu said there has been good commitment from PF leaders to try and ensure that the fight against corruption, which he said had grossly gone down under the Rupiah Banda administration, was resuscitated.

"There is a challenge though in that area in that I think at the beginning we were seeing some contradictions with the fight against corruption. You recall that there were attempts to appoint people that had questionable integrity and had it not been for the outrage from the public, that appointment would have gone through, which also raises questions in terms of the commitment that the PF has in fighting corruption," he said.

"So we hope that was a learning period and the PF will not come up again with some contradictions in the fight against corruption because that was the problem that was there with Rupiah Banda's government. There was more rhetoric and nothing done. To the contrary, government officials were fully-involved in perpetuating corruption. So, that's not what we expect with the PF."

Mulafulafu said as Caritas, they expect a principled fight against corruption both in rhetoric and action.

And Mulafulafu said there was need for ministers in the PF government to take a leaf from the approach that President Michael Sata had taken on wastage of public funds.

"We have seen the President himself taking a stand to minimise his travels abroad, and so far, in his 90 days he has only travelled once and that's a good thing, but also the efforts to minimise government expenditure should also be extended to ministers because we still have a number of them travelling," he said.

Mulafulafu also said much as the reasons for setting up commissions of inquiries were good, there was need for them to be controlled in terms of their expenditure.

On the promises of job creation, Mulafulafu said the creation of jobs was a long-term issue and it was mere politicking for the PF to have promised to create jobs within 90 days.

He said some of the decisions which were taken in the 2012 budget could help lead to job creation but that this was not within the principle of the 90 days.

"We are talking about good quality jobs not women selling groundnuts by the roadside and going away with K50 a day. We need jobs which can be accessed by the many youths that are coming out from our schools, colleges and many people that have lost jobs from the formal sector. We want to see clear strategies on the creation of jobs and so far we have seen commitment but on the practical level, it is not yet very clear to us in terms of how those jobs are going to be created," he said.

And on street vending, Mulafulafu said much as there has been commitment from the PF to ensure that people have money in their pockets, there was need for the government to do things from a perspective of prudence.

"Putting people in the street is not putting money in their pockets, it is endangering them, they will create health hazards which will require resources to be able to overcome and even endanger themselves. The appeasement of cadres must be done with great prudence. There are many ways in which government can propose to be able to ensure that the many people who are jobless, the many people who need money and everybody else, have opportunities other than going to activities that endanger the public life. That was an ill-advised, ill-informed and imprudent action," said Mulafulafu.

Addressing the media at the party's secretariat yesterday, Kunda, who was flanked by Situmbeko Musokotwane and Felix Mutati, said there were no significant developments that had taken place in the 90 days of the PF.

Kunda, who is also the new party chairperson for legal affairs, said that the PF had promised to bring change and transform the economic landscape of the country in the period stated.

"Unfortunately, Mr Sata and the PF have lamentably failed to improve the system. The situation has and continues to deteriorate due to bad governance practices," Kunda claimed.

Kunda said that the PF had failed to uphold the rule of law and the promise that it would govern on Christian tenets.

He highlighted the abolishment of the position of Secretary to the Treasury, which he said was only reversed after the intervention of Parliament, and the initial erroneous appointment of 10 members of parliament instead of 8.

Kunda also noted the dismissal of the Anti Corruption Commission director general among others.

"It could be that the President is not listening to advice or those working with him are fearing him," said Kunda.

Kunda accused President Michael Sata of poaching members of the MMD for the positions of deputy ministers in order to weaken the opposition parties.

"As a result, we have what we call a defacto coalition government because of the President's decision to appointing 8 deputy ministers, he may end up appointing the whole membership to weaken the party," he said.

He accused the PF of engineering petitions of results of by-election in areas where it had lost for similar reasons.

"Such are predetermined as to their outcome, he said.

"Even some of the (commissions of) inquiries have a predetermined outcome. We don't know how much is being spent on those sitting on them. There is no transparency."

On the constitution-making process, Kunda who was at the helm of the failed National Constitution Conference draft (NCC) said the process was not inclusive and supported by any legal framework.

And Musokotwane likened the PF government to a security officer who was always looking for offenders.

And Mutati who is the former minister of commerce and trade called on the PF to reset their development agenda.

"It is important that when you fail you tell people (that) the reality of governance is hard. The minimum wage is the consequence of this. Now it's affecting investments because investors are holding back additional investments because they want to know what the minimum wage will be," he said.

Mutati added that the erosion of the currency had reduced investor confidence.



http://www.postzambia.com/post-read_article.php?articleId=24338

Michael's first 90 days
By The Post
Fri 23 Dec. 2011, 13:00 CAT

TODAY, Michael Sata concludes the first 90 days of his 1, 825-day term of office. Michael has just completed 4.93 per cent of his term of office.

There were promises made. And there were expectations raised of this and that to be done in 90 days. Some things have been done within the 90 days promised. Others haven't been achieved within this promised period. But this shouldn't be cause for much worry because Michael was not elected to serve a 90-day term of office. He will be our President for five years.

And what he could not do in the first 90 days, he has the opportunity to do it in the second, third, fourth, fifth 90 days or even beyond. This is not a 90-day government but a five-year one.

We know that some negative elements, some frustrated opposition characters and all sorts of cynics will try to harangue Michael over this and make political capital out of it. It won't work because the Zambian people are not fools. They know what is possible and what is not possible; what is realistic and what is unrealistic.

The Zambian people did not vote for Michael and the PF for a 90-day period. Many things cannot and have not been achieved within 90 days for many reasons. And there are many other good things that Michael's government has indeed achieved within 90 days as promised. But of course, some people, especially in the opposition, will never recognise the achievements of Michael's government. They will paint a picture that Michael has failed. No sensible person can expect Michael to deliver everything in 90 days.

We should also be mindful of the numerous, and sometimes derailing problems Michael inherited from the Rupiah Banda regime that have consumed a lot of his government's time, attention and resources. Some of these could not be foreseen; one only came to know about them once in government.

And some of these problems could not be ignored or postponed. They were so insurmountable that the positive strides which Michael's government made could not be easily noticed if one is not able to take into account what was there before September 20, 2011. Here, we are talking about institutions that fight corruption. Look at the people who were at the helm of these institutions! Those were people employed to entrench corruption and not to fight it.

Rupiah legalised corruption. He removed the abuse of office offence from our Anti Corruption Commission Act. And there was no motivation for office holders to fight the scourge of corruption. This cannot be said of Michael. Within a very short period of time, Michael has demonstrated the political will to fight corruption.

And this can be seen by the quality of appointments he has made in what can be said to be the integrity institutions. Look at his appointments at the Anti Corruption Commission, Drug Enforcement Commission, the Police, the Attorney General's chambers and the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions! This is a demonstration of serious political will on Michael's part, for which he deserves credit. If these institutions fail to deliver, blame has to be apportioned to the individuals given the opportunity to serve our people in these offices.

Michael alone cannot do everything. The best he can do, in many cases, is to appoint the best sons and daughters of our people, those most suited to do the job. And in the fight against corruption, Michael has done just that.

Of course, not every appointment Michael has made can be said to be good. But the merits outweigh the demerits in these appointments as in everything he has done to date. Michael has done many things which, for close to 47 years, others could not do. He has demonstrated great courage in taking what may appear to be strange decisions. Look at his decision to move the provincial capital of Southern Province from Livingstone to Choma! Only Michael could do that.

What about the creation of our tenth province, Muchinga? Only Michael could do that. There is, of course, the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka, the Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport in Ndola and Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula International Airport in Livingstone.

Only a Michael could do that. But of course this Michael forgot something: what about Mfuwe International Airport? Wouldn't it be appropriate to name that after one of our most outstanding independence fighters Reuben Kamanga, the first vice-treasurer of the African National Congress and the first vice-president of our Republic? Reuben was one of the top six leaders of the African National Congress, which included Nkumbula as president, Mungoni Liso as vice-president, Kaunda as secretary general, Kapwepwe as treasurer general and Titus Mukupo as vice secretary general.

And credit should be given to Michael for being thrift, for reducing waste and extravagance in government expenditure through his own example. Michael has focused his attention on local issues and he has not been travelling abroad as much as others did in the first 90 days. This may seem a small thing. But the savings are very big. Foreign travel by the president costs the country millions of dollars on one trip - it is not cheap.

Michael is certainly on the right path. All that he needs to do is to increase his consultations and to meet as many Zambians from diverse fields as possible within the very limited time he has. He should not confine himself to a small group of people. Michael should also be advised to devote some time, not too much, but just a little to party mobilisation. PF members and supporters are demobilising themselves.


This is a serious political mistake. The government programmes that Michael is trying to implement will not succeed without the support of the people. And that support will not come through the bureaucrats, the civil servants, but through the mobilisation of PF members, cadres and supporters. These should be the driving force of the programmes Michael wants to implement. After all, it is them who brought about this change, who, more than anybody else, put Michael into government. They are not a ladder that should be pushed down after one has climbed.

It is said that the rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher. Members, cadres and supporters of PF can facilitate the climb to power of leaders, but they are not like a ladder that can be pushed away because they need to be at work all the time. When they stop work, problems set in and the party in government loses the capacity to mobilise.

And political parties that stop political work quickly lose militancy and with it public support. Ours is a multi-party political dispensation whose efficiency and effectiveness depends on the capacity of the political parties. Therefore, strengthening political parties, especially the ruling party, is of great importance to the realisation of our development goals.

The seriousness, honesty and courage with which Michael has governed the country in the first 90 days of his government gives us a feeling of security and great confidence in the future of our country.

What a wonderful outlook our country has, with its future in the hands of men and women like these! We have made great progress in the first 90 days, and we have no doubt we will continue to do so, but it won't be easy.

As we have repeatedly stated, nobody should think that things are going to be easy. We must be prepared to meet difficulties. We have difficulties now, and we will have even greater ones in the future, even if Michael does things the right way - and he should do them the right way, even if it calls for his greatest efforts.

If you don't like the way Michael has governed the country in his first 90 days, change it in the next 90 days! You are not a tree. But don't forget that the only way things are going to change for this country is when you yourself change.

Labels: CARITAS, PF, SAM MULAFULAFU

posted by MrK @ 5:29 PM