Maravi

Realignment, reorganisation of provinces, districts

Realignment, reorganisation of provinces, districts
By The Post
Tue 07 Feb. 2012, 13:00 CAT

ZAMBIA is a unitary and indivisible state. This is what our Constitution says in Article 1. Zambia is not a constellation of Bantustans. Our provinces are not states. We are not a federation of states. Ours is an indivisible unitary state. The provinces we have are simply for administrative convenience. And as such, they can be rearranged whenever the administration sees the need to do so to achieve higher levels of efficiency, effectiveness and orderliness.

But we seem to have some people who see these administrative provinces as countries within a country. They are not - they are simply provinces put up by the government of the day for administrative convenience.

And this is why the number of our provinces and districts has been changing, has been increasing. It is not something cast in stone. There are no sacred provincial boundaries. Those in government can increase the number of provinces at any time. And can come up with new districts at any time. There is no province that is owned by a tribe or a group of tribes.

And moreover, who came up with these provinces? Who gave us the provinces we today feel so much attached to? Who gave us these districts we today want to glorify? Some of them were left for us by the colonialists. Some of them we created on our own. And we will continue to reorganise our country into units that make it easy for us to manage and efficiently deliver services to our people. What Michael Sata's government is doing is the right thing.

There is need to administratively reorganise our provinces and districts. All the provinces and districts of this country belong to this country. They can be subdivided or consolidated in any way those in government deem fit. And they have the mandate, legally, politically or otherwise to do so.

We know that such realignment of provinces or districts may not always go well with tribalists or regionalists. To them, the reorganisation of any province or district is seen as a regional or tribal political power scheme - either to consolidate one's hold on power or to weaken that of others.

They have serious difficulties seeing it as a way of trying to improve administrative efficiency, effectiveness and orderliness. When Muchinga Province was created out of Northern and Eastern provinces as a the tenth province of our country, the tribalists or regionalists saw this as a way of attempting to push more resources to one region.

They saw nothing good in it. They could not even acknowledge the bare fact that Northern Province was too big geographically to administer as one unit. They could also not acknowledge the fact that the northern parts of Eastern Province were not receiving adequate attention due to logistical constraints caused by geographical factors.

To them, everything is seen from the angle of tribe, of region and not from how it will benefit the people. They are even forgetting that Lusaka Province, as we know it today, was only created out of Central Province by Dr Kenneth Kaunda's government in 1976. Again, this was for administrative convenience.

We urge Michael's government to listen respectfully to every reaction on this issue - including the reactions from diehard tribalists and regionalists. But at the end of the day, the government should go ahead and do that which it deems best for our country and our people. Obligations to the people should always take precedence over the feelings and sentiments of politically powerful tribalists or regionalists.

What is important is to deliver services to the people. And there is nothing which makes people more appreciative of a government than that it should be able to deliver services.

Michael has shown a lot of courage in some of the decisions he has taken so far. And we should not forget that the ways in which we will achieve our goals are bound by context, changing with circumstances even while remaining steadfast in our commitment to our vision.

The changes Michael is making will carry away the foliage of tribalism and regionalism which has accumulated in the hearts of some of our people, and to which colonialism gave birth.

Let us now, drawing strength from the national unity that we have so far forged, together grasp the opportunities and realise the vision of Zambia as a unitary and indivisible sovereign state enshrined in our Constitution.
Where there is need to change our structures to improve the efficiency, effectiveness and orderliness of our government, let us do so without hesitation. It is said that belief in the possibility of change and renewal is perhaps one of the defining characteristics of politics.

Let us organise our society and get rid of every practice that divided us and weakened us. There are some people who still want to live in colonial Bantustans which brought us nothing but subjugation, poverty, ignorance and disease. And this continues to live with us today in the leaking roofs; in the bulging stomachs of hungry children; in the darkness of homes without electricity; and in the heavy pails of dirty water that rural women carry long distances to cook and quench their thirst.

Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now. And that future is not one of ease or of resting but of incessant striving so that our leaders may fulfil the pledges they have so often taken. The service of Zambia means the service of the millions who suffer.

It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the founders of our Republic was to wipe out poverty, ignorance and disease from the face of our country. That may be beyond us, but as long as there is poverty, ignorance, disease and despair, this work should continue, and will not be over.

We have hard work ahead. We cannot encourage Bantustan politics or narrow-mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought and in action. We must hold together. This is time for big thinking. This is time to forget the small things, of which we have thought too much. Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by people who are petty and narrow-minded.

There are some regionalists or tribalists who think that devolution is simply about sharing of the country's resources, natural or otherwise. When Michael talks about devolution, we don't think he is in any way talking about the creation of Bantustans; he is talking about increasing efficiency, effectiveness and orderliness in the delivery of government services to the masses of our people; he is talking about bringing government as close as possible to the people.

It's not about the creation of Bantustans so that people get very worried about where this or that economic activity takes place or is situated. Why should one worry about whether Itezhi-tezhi Dam is in Southern or Central provinces? Why should one worry about whether Chirundu is in Southern Province or Lusaka Province? Are our people restricted in terms of movement, in terms of where they work or reside? Moreover, where do these tribalists or regionalists reside? Most of them reside in Lusaka Province and their investments are here.

Has that ever worried them? What they are worried about is not the welfare of the people of Chirundu or Itezhi-tezhi. They are simply worried about their imaginary loss of political power as a result of this realignment of districts. That's what they care about.

They are not in any way concerned about the people of Itezhi-tezhi or Chirundu. These are simply selfish elements that care for no one else other than themselves. And they try to use the tribe or origin to make themselves politically relevant. But we can assure them that this approach will make them politically irrelevant and it's just a matter of time before they disappear from our politics.

And we therefore urge Michael and his government to continue realigning, reorganising our provinces and districts in a manner that will enable government to deliver efficient, effective and orderly services to the great majority of our people, especially the poor.

Labels: ACKSON SEJANI, DISTRICTS, MICHAEL SATA, PROVINCES

posted by MrK @ 4:17 PM