Maravi

(TIMES ZM) Fire erring civil servants, orders Sata

Fire erring civil servants, orders Sata

PRESIDENT Michael Sata has directed that civil servants who are frustrating the Government’s development agenda should be dismissed immediately. And Mr Sata has also advised trade unions not to blackmail the Government by threatening to go on strike, but present their grievances through established channels. The President said in Lusaka yesterday that he was aware that there were some MMD sympathisers in the civil service, who were working against his Government.

Mr Sata said some people had wrongly predicted that he would die within two months of assuming office and had now resorted to using MMD sympathisers still serving in the Government to frustrate his administration.

The President said this during the swearing-in of Secretary to the Cabinet Evans Chibiliti, newly-promoted Chiefs and Traditional Affairs Minister Emerine Kabanshi, chairperson of Police and Prisons Commission Alexander Museba and Education Permanent Secretary, Patrick Nkhanza.

President Sata has thus directed Mr Chibiliti to decisively deal with pro-MMD civil servants and trade union leaders who were frustrating development initiatives in various ministries. The President said there had been threats of industrial strike lately agitated by MMD sympathisers.

He cited the teachers’ union and the Judiciary and Allied Workers Union of Zambia (JAWUZ) as some of the organisations that were trying to blackmail the Government by threatening a strike.

” The six months we have been in office, our friends in the MMD have not been happy. They predicted that I would not last two months, there will be a by-election.

“We have seen civil servants, teachers’ unions and the judicial service, saying if we don’t give them what they want, they will strike,” President Sata said.?

Mr Sata said people agitating industrial unrest should not blackmail the Government, but instead present their grievances using established channels. ?

He said because of his vast experience in politics, he was much ahead of them.?Mr Sata said Mr Chibiliti must tour districts and meet district commissioners to understand the needs of the civil service.?”We have seen so many people trying to frustrate us right, left and centre but they won’t succeed.

“We have been in this game much longer. We worked in this PF (Patriotic Front) when it was tough, even under UNIP,” President Sata said.?

He warned Mr Chibiliti against complacency now that he had been ratified by Parliament and sworn-in.?President Sata also urged Ms Kabanshi to travel around the country to understand the conditions underwhich traditional leaders were operating.?

Mr Sata also told Mr Museba to educate the police and retrain them for them to be more alert and hardworking.?

Mr Museba, he said, should also travel and look at the way police were operating, while educating them on the public expectations.?

“For example on Monday, in Southern Province, they want to use youths to demonstrate. They will just be marching, I will not be there. And we understand what unemployment can create in people’s minds. But get up, teach the police and retrain them,” Mr Sata said.?

President Sata said the Ministry of Education must speed up the abolition of basic schools because it was not fair that some pupils should learn from such institutions,

while others were learning from high schools.?He urged Dr Nkanza to tour schools and equip them with science materials, while upgrading basic schools into full secondary schools.

Labels: CIVIL SERVANTS, MICHAEL SATA, MMD, PF, TRADE UNIONS

posted by MrK @ 6:24 AM