Tell the people what we are doing, Sata orders ministers
By Mwala Kalaluka
Wed 18 Sep. 2013, 14:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Michael Sata says three years is enough time for a weak opposition to mobilise and sort out the PF because its ministers are not speaking about the party's achievements in its last two years in government.
And newly-appointed lands minister Harry Kalaba says the time is up for those that are bent on perpetuating illegalities in the country's land alienation processes.
Meanwhile, newly-appointed information minister Mwansa Kapeya says he is not sure when technocrats at the Ministry of Justice will finish polishing the Freedom of Information Bill before its presentation to Parliament.
During a swearing-in ceremony for Kalaba and Kapeya at State House yesterday, President Sata said the glaring failure by all his ministers and members of parliament to speak about what the PF had achieved over the last two years was killing Zambia.
"I like the Nyanja people because if the Nyanjas have problems, they say chabwera pa muzako monga chili pa iwe; chiwamira galu kuluma mbuzi. Mbuzi ilepela kuluma galu today it may be your friend facing a problem; tomorrow it will be you. It is all right for a dog to bite a goat but a goat can't bite a dog," President Sata said.
"The thing which is killing Zambia, you ministers you have government vehicles, government offices, government telephones but you don't speak. We have been two years in government. All of you ministers you are not telling the people what we have achieved. All of you without any exception."
President Sata said the PF members of parliament were very lucky because there was no opposition in the country.
"If there was opposition like when I was in opposition, we would easily sort you out," President Sata said.
"Go out, talk. Tell the people what we are doing because when you tell people what we are doing, what you think you are doing, everything, then people will also come out in the open. You have three years to go and within three years it is very simple to find an opposition."
And Kalaba said in an interview that he was bringing a new era to the Ministry of Lands, and his counsel to those claiming to be PF cadres and allocating land illegally was that their time was up.
"We will ensure that land is given out according to the prescription that has been outlined in the Circular 1 of 1985. So that is how we are going to move," Kalaba said.
"The time for giving out land by those who claim to be ward chairmen or chairman of some sort is over now because we will ensure that the rule of the law of the land is adhered to and adhered to strictly. As minister in charge, I will not sit idle and see that anarchy reigns. I will ensure that sanity is maintained in the way that land is allocated."
He said it would be folly to allow a situation where those who follow procedures are left to live in fear of those who do not.
"This is a country of laws, and there are sufficient laws in this country to take care of those that want to take the law into their own hands. So we will ensure that things are done accordingly...," Kalaba said.
He asked local authorities to be above board as they execute ther duties as agencies of the Ministry of Land in land alienation.
"The final authority to give out land lies with the Ministry of Lands," Kalaba said. "I don't want to be forced to revoke any council's agency in terms of land alienation if they will not follow the rule of the law. So I am urging them to be above board and that the issues of one councillor getting five plots or 10 plots are also long gone. This is a new era at play."
Meanwhile, Kapeya said he was delighted that President Sata had appointed him information minister.
"It is a clear testimony of the confidence that the President has in me, and I will ensure that we do the needful that Zambians have been waiting for, especially the Access to Information, which is indeed in the pipeline and then the issue of digital migration has to be accelerated and also the provincial studios. We are almost two years down the line, we need to start working on it," he said.
On the Freedom of Information Bill, Kapeya said the document was ready.
"What is being looked into by our colleagues in the Ministry of Justice is just polishing up the document before we present it to Parliament," he said.
Kapeya said he could not tell when this process would be completed.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, TRANSPARANCY
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Talk to the people
By Editor
Mon 29 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
It requires a lot of effort, time and sometimes money for the government to explain things, what it is doing or intends to do.
There is a very high temptation for those in government to avoid explaining things to the people and just move on to implement their policies and programmes. In doing so, one may think this saves time and all that people are interested in are the results.
This is not correct because true democracy is a growth in the confidence in the power of ordinary people to transform their country, and thus transform themselves. It is a growth in the appreciation of people organising, deciding, creating together. It is not only about what government is doing for the people; it is also about what the people are doing with government.
Good policies and programmes on their own are not enough to develop a country. Meaningful development only comes when the people themselves are involved. The government has the authority to make final decisions, but the people themselves have the right and duty to share in that authority. Government is there as an authority to guide the energies of all towards the common good. The government is the instrument by which people cooperate together in order to achieve the common good.
Therefore, at all times, the people and the government need to work together. And to work together effectively and efficiently, there has to be very good communication between the government and the people.
Look at the issue of the removal of subsidies! The government was being harassed by all sorts of political hyenas, not knowing that what it was doing had the potential support of some key leaders in the Catholic Church. Bishop George Lungu, of the Chipata Diocese, says "We know that the idea is good but the way it is explained and also the question of time and place, but the whole idea is very, very good, it is something which can benefit everyone".
If this government does not quickly change its approach and start to communicate with the people more effectively, it will soon find itself isolated and having its good policies and programmes opposed unnecessarily. People can only support things they understand and things they are part of.
There was so much unjustified propaganda against the removal of subsidies. Some elements even went as far as pushing a motion in Parliament to try and bring back the subsidies that were removed. Of course, the motion was defeated. Things went that far because some opportunistic elements were given enough space to manoeuvre as a result of government's inability to effectively and clearly explain what it was doing. And where an attempt was made to explain things, the explanations were like someone reading a catechism. A few made sense but many didn't because they were merely regurgitating arguments they had swallowed without chewing.
As a result of these inadequate explanations, today we are hearing arguments like "…what might be helpful is for the government to put a more articulate programme of what is being realised from the subsidies and where they are being applied instead of talking in general".
This is coming from Bishop Lungu. And this argument is understandable because the government's argument has been that money will be saved and that money will be taken to development projects like building schools, hospitals, roads and so on and so forth. But is this the truth? The answer is a categorical no. There will be no money saved per se and an account opened where such money can be deposited and later used.
Our public expenditure already exceeds our revenues. This means that many of the things government is doing are being financed by borrowing. And this in itself is not a wrong thing to do. There is nothing wrong with borrowing. What is wrong is to borrow beyond your capacity to pay back. There is a limit to how much we can borrow.
The roads we are building, a large part of them, are being financed with borrowed money. We have to set our own priorities as a nation and choose what we should finance and what we shouldn't finance. We can't have everything we want; there is a financing constraint. We know that President Michael Sata wants to link as many parts of our country to each other by building the necessary roads. These are good wishes and very legitimate ones for that matter. But these projects have to be financed and the money has to come from somewhere. At our current public expenditure, we don't have adequate surpluses to help us realise these wonderful dreams. Some things in our public expenditure have to give way if we are to realise these dreams, or a good part of them.
The money we are borrowing for all these development projects has to be paid back. If we continue with some of this unnecessary expenditure like the subsidies on fuel and maize, we will soon get into a position where we start failing to meet our debt obligations. And it won't be long before we are back to where we were before seeking debt write-offs.
We are of the view that the issue of subsidies is not being explained well to the people. The explanations that are being given are creating unnecessary expectations which will not be fulfilled because there will be no such money saved or set aside. This is simply an issue of setting our priorities right and paying for what is more beneficial for the development and future of our country.
If this issue is not explained properly, in a year's time, the government will be having unnecessary problems explaining where the money that has been saved from the removal of subsidies has gone. And someone will be looking for money that is not there.
There are many things government needs to finance. And these roads are expensive. But we cannot do without them as a country if we have to move forward. Part of our economic stagnation as a country has been as a result of our failure to develop or expand our road infrastructure and improve our schools and hospitals. For many years we were stuck with the same institutions that were not expanding. It is this infrastructure that will provide the impetus for development. It is a prerequisite to development. The choice is ours. If we want to continue eating subsidised mealie-meal the way we have done over the decades and finish all our money on that, we should expect very little in terms of development. If we want to continue having subsidised fuel and spend a substantial part of our budget on that, we will not have enough money to do anything else and we will stagnate in terms of development the way we have been over the last three decades or so. Even in our households when we want to acquire certain things - a new car, a tractor, some new furniture, some cattle, build a house - a certain amount of consumption is sacrificed. Certain foodstuffs are made to disappear from our menu; sometimes even the number of meals is cut. This is a reality of life. It is a reality of life for the individual and for the nation as a whole. Again, the choice is ours. If we want to be living the way we have lived over the last three decades, let's continue spending our money the way we have been doing with subsidies on maize, fuel and other avoidable things.
There is an attempt by dishonest elements to paint those who are supporting the removal of these subsidies as uncaring people, people who are not concerned about the plight of the poor. Surely, can anyone in all honesty say Bishop Lungu does not care about the poor?
At the end of the day, the problem does not lie inherently in what the government has done - the removal of subsidies. It lies in its incompetence and inability to explain clearly to the masses of our people and other civic leaders what the government is doing.
This is a popular government. But this does not mean everything it does will be received that way. The Patriotic Front became popular because of the tireless efforts Michael and some of his key colleagues exerted in explaining what was happening in our country and what needed to be done. If this stops, everything else will stop with it. The signs of this are starting to appear and the time to take corrective action is now.
Labels: MICHAEL SATA, PF, TRANSPARANCY
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'Demand to know how money from subsidies will be used'
By Brina Siwale in Livingstone
Fri 07 June 2013, 14:01 CAT
TOURISM and arts minister Sylvia Masebo says Zambians should be patient with the government's decision to remove subsidies because the benefits cannot been seen immediately.
And Masebo says Zambians should now start demanding to know how the money saved from subsidies will be used to develop the country and not benefit those in government.
Speaking when she addressed Livingstone residents, Masebo said the government understood that the impact of the removal of subsidies was harsh at the moment but this would soon change and the poor would greatly benefit.
"Yes, there is pain but after some time you will begin to see the benefits behind the decision. The government will work out mechanisms to ensure that those who are very weak and vulnerable are cushioned so that the impact is not massive," Masebo said.
She said President Michael Sata did not want to harm the people of Zambia with the policies that government was putting in place.
"Be patient and support your government. President Sata also wants to ensure that by the end the five years you will see that he meant well.
"That is why we have a five-year term. At end of the term then you can say but government removed the subsidies then why haven't things changed. Then it will be time to change government. So just help him and give him support and let's wait and see. You can't have results immediately but they are there because we will have extra money from the savings," she said.
"What you as citizens should be saying is that you want to see where this money is going; and that you don't want this money to be misused by ministers, civil servants or any one in government. You should monitor us and begin to ask for the differences to be made."
And Masebo urged Zambians not to be used by politicians who wanted to use the removal of subsidies for political mileage.
She said the people of Livingstone should expect a lot of development with the removal of subsidies.
"Here in Livingstone we will see more roads and infrastructure development with the savings. We will be able to give money to SWASCO to improve on the water supply and Zesco to improve on the supply of electricity. And with better infrastructure, we will be able to increase the number of tourists and with that increase, you the local people will benefit," said Masebo.
Labels: FARM SUBSIDIES, SYLVIA MASEBO, TRANSPARANCY
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PF's business ventures
By The Post
Wed 17 Oct. 2012, 13:50 CAT
Avoiding corruption and abuse of public resources would require creating a thick line marking a distinction between the government and the ruling party. Lack of distinction between the ruling party and the government creates a climate for corruption and abuse of public resources.
No social group, for example, a political party, has the right to abuse public resources to keep itself in office or power. It is usually the unbridled desire to stay in power at all costs that leads to corruption. Those who want to keep themselves in power at all costs usually resort to abusing public resources to do so.
It is therefore very important that our political parties, especially the ruling party, become self-sustaining or self- reliant. In a poor country like ours, it is very difficult to mobilise the required financial resources to run election campaigns.
And the temptation is therefore very high on the ruling party, on those who control public resources to devise crooked ways of channelling such resources into their election campaigns. Over the last 20 years, we have seen how the MMD, as a ruling party, became parasitic on state resources for its survival.
All sorts of schemes were devised to steal public resources for its election campaigns. First ladies had NGOs or charities which received money mainly from people who were doing business with government. And part of this money was channelled to the ruling party's election campaigns.
Those who were doing business with government or those who wanted to do business with government became regular contributors to the first ladies' charities. And when their husbands lost power, the charities also lost support from these people. This should tell us something about the nature of those charities and the sources of their finance.
There are also many stories about people being given government contracts on condition that they contribute something to the ruling party and its election campaigns. We have heard stories of people who were given huge loans by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission with a requirement that they surrender part of the loan to the MMD for its election campaigns.
They didn't worry about repayment because the loans were not given with the intention of repayment. But the MMD failed to win last year's elections and those who had borrowed money from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission on such an understanding are today in trouble. They will have to pay back money they have not used for business. If the MMD had won the elections, they would have gotten away with it.
It is good that the Patriotic Front has publicly stated that they do not want to go that route. And to avoid such temptations, the party has decided to generate election campaign funds from commercial dealings, and has as such registered a limited liability company, Ilunda Chalo Investments Limited. The Patriotic Front intends to do business using this company and hopes to meet its financial requirements from the profits generated by this investment company.
This seems to be a good and honest approach to party fundraising. But there are dangers. Without strengthening the integrity and incorruptibility of the government procurement systems, there is no guarantee that in desperation the Patriotic Front may be given undue advantage in the procurement of government contracts.
And the whole Patriotic Front entrepreneurship endeavours may simply become just another form of tenderpreneurship. This may not be different, in nature, from the corrupt tenderpreneurship practiced by individuals close to, or associated with, the ruling party that we saw in the previous regimes of the MMD.
The Patriotic Front will not be the first ruling political party in our region to have business undertakings. The African National Congress in South Africa has similar business undertakings. The African National Congress has an investment wing, Chancellor House. And questions have been raised in the National Assembly about Chancellor House having undue advantage in the sourcing of government business.
Responding to questions from opposition members of parliament, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said that Chancellor House should ideally not do business with government at all and should not do business in a way which gives it an advantage because it was the investment wing of the ruling African National Congress.
There is great potential for conflict of interest. This is a challenge. And there is a potential danger here. Not doing business with government means that the ruling party's investment wing should not enter into certain types of business like construction and other public works that are dominated by or are a preserve of government.
In small economies, like ours, this may greatly limit the ruling party's scope of business because most economic sectors have direct or indirect government financing.
In this country, it would mean that the ruling party cannot enter into road construction, farming input procurements and other businesses where there are limited resources to be allocated by government. Even mining can be problematic because licences, especially for new mines, have to be granted by government.
This is not to say these dangers, these challenges are insurmountable. These can be overcome by increasing the levels of transparency in government procurements and granting of licences and concessions.
The intention of the Patriotic Front to keep its fingers away from the government till is highly welcome and deserves support. But there is need to scrutinise the other legitimate options that the party wants to resort to because they too can result in the abuse of public resources by the back door.
We do not doubt the sincerity of the Patriotic Front on this score. The appointment of James Matale, a very honest man, is in itself indicative of the good intentions of the Patriotic Front in its business undertakings.
When things are going well, it is relatively easy to maintain an honest and clean line. Problems start when the going becomes difficult and expediencies of the moment increase.
It is important for the party, as it is for the individual, to avoid situations of extreme financial desperation, especially during election campaigns.
This can be avoided by advance planning and continuous political work. Plans for the next presidential and general elections in 2016 should start now to avoid desperation that may lead to corruption.
Labels: CORRUPTION, PF, TRANSPARANCY
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PF's business ventures
By The Post
Wed 17 Oct. 2012, 13:50 CAT
Avoiding corruption and abuse of public resources would require creating a thick line marking a distinction between the government and the ruling party. Lack of distinction between the ruling party and the government creates a climate for corruption and abuse of public resources.
No social group, for example, a political party, has the right to abuse public resources to keep itself in office or power. It is usually the unbridled desire to stay in power at all costs that leads to corruption. Those who want to keep themselves in power at all costs usually resort to abusing public resources to do so.
It is therefore very important that our political parties, especially the ruling party, become self-sustaining or self- reliant. In a poor country like ours, it is very difficult to mobilise the required financial resources to run election campaigns.
And the temptation is therefore very high on the ruling party, on those who control public resources to devise crooked ways of channelling such resources into their election campaigns. Over the last 20 years, we have seen how the MMD, as a ruling party, became parasitic on state resources for its survival.
All sorts of schemes were devised to steal public resources for its election campaigns. First ladies had NGOs or charities which received money mainly from people who were doing business with government. And part of this money was channelled to the ruling party's election campaigns.
Those who were doing business with government or those who wanted to do business with government became regular contributors to the first ladies' charities. And when their husbands lost power, the charities also lost support from these people. This should tell us something about the nature of those charities and the sources of their finance.
There are also many stories about people being given government contracts on condition that they contribute something to the ruling party and its election campaigns. We have heard stories of people who were given huge loans by the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission with a requirement that they surrender part of the loan to the MMD for its election campaigns.
They didn't worry about repayment because the loans were not given with the intention of repayment. But the MMD failed to win last year's elections and those who had borrowed money from the Citizens Economic Empowerment Commission on such an understanding are today in trouble. They will have to pay back money they have not used for business. If the MMD had won the elections, they would have gotten away with it.
It is good that the Patriotic Front has publicly stated that they do not want to go that route. And to avoid such temptations, the party has decided to generate election campaign funds from commercial dealings, and has as such registered a limited liability company, Ilunda Chalo Investments Limited. The Patriotic Front intends to do business using this company and hopes to meet its financial requirements from the profits generated by this investment company.
This seems to be a good and honest approach to party fundraising. But there are dangers. Without strengthening the integrity and incorruptibility of the government procurement systems, there is no guarantee that in desperation the Patriotic Front may be given undue advantage in the procurement of government contracts.
And the whole Patriotic Front entrepreneurship endeavours may simply become just another form of tenderpreneurship. This may not be different, in nature, from the corrupt tenderpreneurship practiced by individuals close to, or associated with, the ruling party that we saw in the previous regimes of the MMD.
The Patriotic Front will not be the first ruling political party in our region to have business undertakings. The African National Congress in South Africa has similar business undertakings. The African National Congress has an investment wing, Chancellor House. And questions have been raised in the National Assembly about Chancellor House having undue advantage in the sourcing of government business.
Responding to questions from opposition members of parliament, Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe said that Chancellor House should ideally not do business with government at all and should not do business in a way which gives it an advantage because it was the investment wing of the ruling African National Congress.
There is great potential for conflict of interest. This is a challenge. And there is a potential danger here. Not doing business with government means that the ruling party's investment wing should not enter into certain types of business like construction and other public works that are dominated by or are a preserve of government.
In small economies, like ours, this may greatly limit the ruling party's scope of business because most economic sectors have direct or indirect government financing.
In this country, it would mean that the ruling party cannot enter into road construction, farming input procurements and other businesses where there are limited resources to be allocated by government. Even mining can be problematic because licences, especially for new mines, have to be granted by government.
This is not to say these dangers, these challenges are insurmountable. These can be overcome by increasing the levels of transparency in government procurements and granting of licences and concessions.
The intention of the Patriotic Front to keep its fingers away from the government till is highly welcome and deserves support. But there is need to scrutinise the other legitimate options that the party wants to resort to because they too can result in the abuse of public resources by the back door.
We do not doubt the sincerity of the Patriotic Front on this score. The appointment of James Matale, a very honest man, is in itself indicative of the good intentions of the Patriotic Front in its business undertakings.
When things are going well, it is relatively easy to maintain an honest and clean line. Problems start when the going becomes difficult and expediencies of the moment increase.
It is important for the party, as it is for the individual, to avoid situations of extreme financial desperation, especially during election campaigns.
This can be avoided by advance planning and continuous political work. Plans for the next presidential and general elections in 2016 should start now to avoid desperation that may lead to corruption.
Labels: CORRUPTION, PF, TRANSPARANCY
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MDC-T forced to swallow its pride
Saturday, 22 September 2012 20:52
Kuda Bwititi and Itai Mazire
The full Constitution Select Committee (Copac) has agreed to table its Draft Constitution together with the National Statistical Report before the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference provisionally set for October 4 to 6 this year. This comes after the MDC-T, which initially attempted to block the tabling of the National Statistical Report, made a U-turn citing logistical concerns.
Zanu-PF, on the other hand, has all along insisted that the National Statistical Report should be taken to the conference alongside the draft, arguing this would allow stakeholders to compare the draft and public opinion captured during the outreach programme.
It is understood that Copac is also pushing that the Second Stakeholders’ Conference is not turned into a debating or decision-making platform, but remain just a feedback forum.
In an interview yesterday, Zanu-PF Copac co-chair Cde Munyaradzi Paul Mangwana said all was set for the conference after his committee took the decision at a meeting in Harare last Thursday.
He said a sub-committee had already begun organising the conference.
“We agreed as a select committee that we are going to take the Copac Draft and the National Statistical Report to the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference,” he said.
“We also set provisional dates of between 4 and 6 October for the holding of the conference.”
Cde Mangwana said discussions at the conference should be premised on the National Statistical Report, which contains the frequency of views gathered during the outreach programme.
He said the proposed amendments made to the document by Zanu-PF in line with the National Statistical Report would be discussed during thematic committees at the conference. He said the report captures the summary of views from all 1200 wards, 56 districts and 10 provinces of the country.
“The amendments made by Zanu-PF will be discussed by thematic committees during the process.
“After this, recommendations will be made to the select committee to enforce the amendments.”
He said the MDC-T was now cornered after refusing to sign the National Statistical Report.
“You can only ask yourself why the MDC were attempting to block this report. It is clear that they did not want the views of the people included in the process, but all they want to serve is their own agenda and come up with a party constitution and not a national constitution.
“They are an imperialist party which wants to extend their imperialistic endeavours into the national body politic, and we will not accept that.”
MDC-T co-chair Mr Douglas Mwonzora admitted that his party had shifted from its earlier stance and agreed to take the National Statistical Report to the conference.
He said the MDC-T did not see the importance of the document because of its sheer size, adding that it would be difficult to use at the crucial gathering.
He said his party only decided to support its tabling “in the interest of transparency”.
“We have agreed that the National Statistical Report will be used as a conference document. There will be a full National Statistical Report together with all the other documents that were used for drafting the Constitution. The Report will also be accompanied by an explanation of what the statistics mean and a summary of the statistical data.”
Copac spokesperson and MDC-T secretary for constitutional and parliamentary affairs Ms Jessie Majome said her party has no objection to the tabling of the Report. She said the MDC-T was just concerned about logistical challenges that would emerge.
“The Statistical Report contains about 10 000 pages, so it will create a challenge for stakeholders to go over such a huge document and this is our only reservation. It is readily available on our website,” she said.
Cde Mangwana, however, laughed off suggestions that the Report was too large to table before conference.
“They are playing all kinds of tricks to confuse the people. We have a summarised report that only contains 20 or so pages,” he said.
Chairman of the Zimbabwe Institute of Legal Studies Mr Godwills Masimirembwa said the Report will prove that the Copac Draft is a fraud.
He said some of the sections of the Draft were not in tandem with the National Statistical Report.
Among such areas are dual citizenship, presidential running mates, functions of the Attorney-General and the Judiciary.
“On the issue of dual citizenship, the Statistical Report showed that 10,25 percent said yes to it, while 60 percent said no and the divided opinions were 37, 25 percent.
“On the AG, 43,23 percent of the people said the AG should be a legal advisor to Government and 23, 44 percent said he or she should be the chief prosecutor. Only 2,05 percent said they want a National Prosecuting Authority.”
Meanwhile, Ms Majome revealed that Copac sparked confusion around the National Statistical Report and the National Report after it misinformed the nation that the National Report would be produced earlier.
The document will only be made available after the Second All-Stakeholders’ Conference. The National Report is essentially a narration of the outreach programme.
Labels: COPAC, MDC, TRANSPARANCY
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Explain what you are doing!
By The Post
Fri 29 June 2012, 13:25 CAT
TO govern is to communicate. It is not enough for those in government to quietly do their work. As representatives of the people, those in government need to continually explain to the people they represent, as far as possible, everything they are doing.
This is the only way our people can participate in government programmes, in governing their country. Whatever the level of their contribution, a healthy democracy depends upon the continuing, informed participation of the broad range of its citizens.
The essence of democratic action is the active, freely chosen participation of its citizens in the public life of their community and nation. Without this broad, sustaining participation, democracy will begin to wither and become the preserve of a small, select number of groups and organisations.
But with the active engagement of individuals across t spectrum of society, our democracy can weather the inevitable economic and political storms that sweep over every society, without sacrificing the freedoms and rights thehat they are sworn to uphold.
Active involvement in public life shouldn't be seen just to be about elections and the struggle for political office. Citizen participation in a democratic society is much broader than just taking part in elections. Of course, the electorate is the ultimate custodian of its own destiny. And as such it must ensure its function. At a minimum, citizens should educate themselves about the critical issues confronting their nation.
Democracy, as Abraham Lincoln once defined it, is government of the people, by the people, for the people. This means that governments should be as closely linked to the people as possible, arise from the people, have the support of the people and devote itself entirely to working and struggling for the people and the people's interest; it means a government in which all the people participate.
Our government is doing many things but it is not explaining much to the people what it is doing. It seems as if our people's participation in the governance of their country ended on the day they cast their votes. But democracy does not begin and end with elections. It means continuous participation of the people in everything that the government is doing on their behalf. This is the true meaning of democracy.
It is a growth in the confidence in the power of ordinary people to transform their country, and thus transform themselves. It is the growth in the appreciation of people organising, deciding, creating together. It is a growth in fraternal love. The greatest mistake this government is making is to think it can go on doing things without explaining to the people what it is doing.
People in Kaputa want to know what the government is doing in Sinazeze; people in Chavuma want to know what the government has done or is doing in Sindamisale. But today the great majority of our people don't seem to understand, don't seem to know what their government is doing or where it is headed, where it is going.
And no one seems to be taking the trouble to explain. Of course, some things the government is doing are not going well and probably there is fear or reluctance to explain that which seems to have been born twisted. It may be politically dangerous to explain to the people things that are not going well but which the people expected to go well. However, it is still more dangerous not to explain.
There is no need for the government to, in any way, mask problems or difficulties, mistakes, failures. They should instead hide nothing from the masses of our people. Things are not going to be easy and no one should think that there will be easy victories to claim. And as we have stated before, nobody should think that things are going to be easy.
We must all be prepared to meet difficulties. We have difficulties now, and we will have even greater ones in the future, even if we do things the right way - and we should do them the right way, even if it calls for our greatest efforts.
Those in government may think if they explain a lot of things to the people, their deficiencies, weaknesses or failures will become known by their political competitors and will be used against them politically. Yes, those in the opposition will try to make political capital out of that, but where will it take them? The economic challenges we are facing will not be solved overnight. What the government needs to do is to explain everything to our people.
Zambians are very understanding people and they will understand the challenges the government is facing and why it may not be delivering certain things as quickly as it had promised. But we should also know that in difficult times like these, it is necessary to avoid unilateral judgements, excessive zeal.
And it is also necessary to watch out for those who are too demanding, the demagogic champions who tend to crop up in such situations in order to divert attention from their own faults and weaknesses and pretend to be demanding when they are really opportunists trying to avoid being called on to account for themselves. There is need for our people to be demanding. They must demand to the utmost, but they must also watch out for those super-demanders. They must be firm but just in their demands.
Michael Sata needs to get back to the people in the way he used to do before the elections and explain to them what his government is doing and the challenges or problems it is facing. He has the capacity, the talent to do so but is not doing it.
The mobilisation of our people should not just be for elections. It must be a continuous process. The programmes the government is undertaking in many areas of human endeavour, including in the fight against corruption, need mass mobilisations.
This is so because without the support and participation of the great majority of our people in these programmes, nothing much will be achieved.
Michael shouldn't think simply because he has appointed people to head districts and provinces then his work is done and he can sit in Lusaka and do other administrative work.
Michael needs to visit as many places as possible, explain to the people what he is doing and engage them to make a contribution. And talking to the people will enable those in government to purify or refine their ideas, policies and programmes. The people will make a contribution to all that they are doing.
Those in government must be able to integrate themselves with the masses in all things. If they spend their whole lives sitting indoors and never go out to face the people and brave the storm, what good will they be to the Zambian people? None at all, and our people do not need such leaders in government.
What Zambia needs is a political leadership that listens attentively to the views of the people and lets them have their say. If what they say is right, they ought to welcome it, and they should learn from their strong points; if it is wrong, they should let them finish what they are saying and then patiently explain things to them.
Our politicians in government must be like seeds and the people must be like the soil. Wherever they go, they must unite with the people, take root and blossom among them. Our leaders in government should set an example in being practical as well as far-sighted. For only by being practical can they fulfil the appointed tasks, and only far-sightedness can prevent them from losing their bearings in the march forward.
Every politician in government must be brought to understand that the supreme test of the words and deeds of a leader is whether they conform with the highest interests and enjoy the support of the overwhelming majority of the people. But again, this can only be known and understood if there is meaningful engagement with the people.
Labels: PF, TRANSPARANCY
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Government will reward innovations aimed at improved public service accountability - Chibiliti
By Abigail Sitengi
Sun 24 June 2012, 13:29 CAT
SECRETARY to the Cabinet Evans Chibiliti said the government is determined to promote and reward innovations that are justifiable and capable of improving transparency and accountability in the public service.
Speaking during the commemoration of Africa Public Service Day at Mulungushi International Conference Centre in Lusaka yesterday, Chibiliti said innovations and initiatives in improving the delivery of public service should be viewed as a continuous process in the development of the country.
Chibiliti however said he was concerned that while the efforts made by the public service in developing brilliant policy documents and strategies were commendable, the rate of implementation and quality left much to be desired.
"I therefore expect all government ministries and institutions to exhibit total commitment towards implementation of policies and programmes," he said.
He also said it was important for all departments to develop standards of service delivery for which the public could hold them accountable.
Chibiliti explained that service delivery charters would make corruption and other forms of misconduct by public service workers easier to detect and correct.
"The charters when effectively implemented will help in identifying specific cases of poor performance, mal administration and improper use of discretion in decision making," he said.
He further said the government was committed to accelerating implementation of the code of ethics for the public service by providing the required political leadership.
The Africa Public Service Day this year was celebrated under the theme 'Capacity development for implementation of the African Charter on values and principles of public service and administration towards developmental states'.
Labels: EVANS CHIBILITI, TRANSPARANCY
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Sweden asks MoH to improve accountability
By Henry Sinyangwe and Ashleigh Mostert
Tue 12 June 2012, 13:23 CAT
SWEDISH Ambassador to Zambia lena Nordstrom says the fight against corruption is an ongoing task and has asked the Ministry of Health to strengthen its accountability structures.
Speaking when her government released K33.5 billion for health sector improvement to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015, Ambassador Nordstrom said her government was committed to supporting the Zambian health sector following the progress made by the Ministry of Health in recent years to improve accountability and transparency in management of funds.
The Swedish government had withheld funding to the Ministry of Health following a scandal where US$33 million of donor funding was reportedly abused.
"I am delighted to be able to make this vote of confidence to the Ministry of Health and also wish to congratulate all those who have worked very hard on setting things straight. When our Minister of Development Co-operation, Gunilla Carlson, visited Zambia in November last year, she went to Chongwe to visit health centres and hospitals, to talk to women who waited for antenatal care, to those who had just delivered and to the medical staff and traditional birth attendants performing miracles with bicycle ambulances on impossible roads. Today we are translating the Swedish government's commitment into reality and the funds transferred will be used for exactly those women. She Carlson would have liked to be here with you today," Ambassador Nordstrom said.
She said the Ministry of Health should put up strong oversight and accountability structures to avoid misuse of funds.
"Management based on results and performance, transparency and openness in the systems is of benefit not only for the Ministry of Health, but will result in better medical service for more Zambians, especially those in rural areas," said Ambassador Nordstrom.
And health minister Dr Joseph Kasonde said the government has since 2009 been implementing the governance action plan to strengthen the management capacity of the ministry in order to promote transparency, accountability and best practices in managing public resources.
"I am pleased to announce to the nation that as a result of the joint efforts between government and its cooperating partners to enhance good governance in the health sector, the oversight and fiduciary role of the ministry is now extremely positive," said Dr Kasonde.
"It is our commitment that service delivery shall continue to improve in order to realise our commitments to the Zambian people."
Labels: CORRUPTION, MINISTRY OF HEALTH, SWEDEN, TRANSPARANCY
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Leaders should be able to defend decisions - Mambo
By Roy Habaalu
Wed 09 May 2012, 14:00 CAT
BISHOP John Mambo says leaders in government must be bold and defend decisions they make when in authority.
In an interview, Bishop Mambo, who is former Church of God overseer, said most leaders were afraid to defend their decisions while in authority because they would want to be protected whenever they left power.
"That's the sickness that needs cure in Zambia…Leaders must be able to defend their decisions but we do not have such leaders in Zambia," he said.
Bishop Mambo said the country should strive to reach a level where leaders appointed to serve the people could withstand pressure and defend their decisions while in authority.
"We need to reach a level whereby if you take a stand say, 'I am a leader appointed in the civil servant and this is a stand I am taking, anywhere I will go, I will explain'. From independence, you count, go to the archives and see how many citizens have resigned because they have messed up? Most of them are fired or their contracts come to an end to avoid embarrassment," he said.
And commenting on investigations on former government officials for alleged abuse of office and public resources, Bishop Mambo said the government was moving at a slow pace.
He said there were many enemies in the civil service that were determined to frustrate the government before the next elections.
"Most civil servants are determined to see them (PF) fail in the next five years and if they don't see, there is confusion all over, even directives that come from ministers and permanent secretaries are never taken and that is not in the general rules. So there is a lot of things that are not being done.
They should not sleep with two eyes closed and say all is well, no, because the enemy is strong, the enemy has got the muscle in terms of finances and the minds of all of us are corrupt…," said Bishop Mambo.
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Labels: DEMOCRACY, JOHN MAMBO, LEADERSHIP, TRANSPARANCY
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Chipata farmers body salutes social auditing
By Christopher Miti in Chipata and Fredrick Mwansa in Itezhi-te
Mon 09 Apr. 2012, 13:27 CAT
CHIPATA District Farmers Association (CDFA) coordinator Virgil Malambo says the
involvement of citizens in the monitoring of public resources is critical. During the launch of CDFA's community social auditing project recently, Malambo said it was important to do social auditing in the communities, especially on projects funded by public resources.
"Social auditing is important so that we look at how the resources funded by public funds are being implemented. As CDFA, we strongly believe that the engagement of the community, the engagement of the citizens is critical when it comes to monitoring of public resources, be it social, be it political, be it economic projects; without the community you cannot do anything," he said.
Malambo said CDFA would always involve the community in its programmes.
"We are all leaders wherever we are coming from, representing the community, and the community is expecting us to do the right thing. So let's do our best as community leaders," he said.
Malambo said the project, which is funded by the Embassy of Finland under the Fund for Local Cooperation, had an overall developmental goal of promoting transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.
He said the process of social auditing would address not only issues of transparency and accountability but also enhanced community participation and better service delivery, thereby promoting good governance.
Malambo said the CDFA-Embassy of Finland project initially focuses on the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
Chipata district commissioner Masautso Banda said the government would work with different stakeholders in promoting transparency and accountability in the management of public resources.
Banda commended CDFA for taking a holistic approach to addressing the structural causes of poverty and supplementing government efforts in poverty reduction among the people.
Labels: CHIPATA, TRANSPARANCY
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Henry’s charges can only be revealed if he presents himself-Inspector General
TIME PUBLISHED - Monday, April 2, 2012, 1:59 pm
Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani has said that the charges against the fugitive son of former President Rupiah Banda, Henry can only be revealed when he presents himself for question before law enforcement officers.
The Inspector General was reacting to South African High Commissioner to Zambia Moses Chikane who is quoted as saying that his country cannot extradite Henry to their Zambian counterparts in the absence of charges.
Ms Libongani said it is now the responsibility of Interpol to avail the details of Henry Banda’s case to South Africa since the Zambian government has handed over the details to French basedpolice organisation.
Henry, the most prominent son of former president Rupiah Banda is wanted for questioning in connection with the engagement of RP Capital Group to evaluate Zamtel assets at the cost of $2 million and the subsequent sale of the company to LAP Green of Libya.
The Zambian government has since reversed the sale of Zamtel and returned 100 percent ownership of the telecommunications company.
And Ms. Libongani has observed that intellectual property rights violation poses serious threats to the country than just economic loss to the rights’ holder.
She says the failure to protect intellectual property rights undermines confidence in the economy, removes opportunities for growth, erodes the country’s technical advantages and disrupts fairness and competitiveness in the market place.
Ms. Libongani said this at Lilayi Police College in Lusaka this morning during the opening of a five day decentralization training seminar on intellectual property enforcement organized by the British American Tobacco.
She says the focus of the programme is to ensure that at the end of the course, the police service should be in a position to decentralize the functions performed by the IPU unit at the police headquarters to other provinces of the country.
QFM
Labels: CORRUPTION, HENRY BANDA, MMD, POLICE, SECRECY, TRANSPARANCY
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Kenyan Chief Justice asks for feedback on decisions
By Joan Chirwa-Ngoma
Tue 14 Feb. 2012, 12:59 CAT
KENYA's Chief Justice Willy Mutunga says there is no policy in the Judiciary to block reforms. Dr Mutunga
asked the public to give judges and magistrates feedback on decisions they felt were unfair. He defended the Judiciary against claims that its rulings and injunctions were blocking reforms.
"Kenyans should respect the courts and let judges do their work," according to Dr Mutunga. "And those unhappy with the rulings have the Court of Appeal to go to."
Judges, he noted, had been making decisions on isolated cases, each with their own interpretation of the law.
"The decisions may be wrong or not fair and I think that's important for the public and it's very important for the judges to have that feedback," Dr Mutunga told journalists last Wednesday after meeting the Swedish and German ambassadors accredited to Kenya.
"When the courts decide on injunctions, I can't interfere with what we call decisional independence of judges. They have the right to hear cases and make decisions. Kenyans who are not satisfied have the right to launch appeals to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court."
Dr Mutunga was reacting to concerns expressed over orders and injunctions from the courts, with justice minister Mutula Kilonzo warning last Monday that this was a threat to judicial reforms.
He cited the Court of Appeal's decision stopping the Vetting of Judges and Magistrates Board from starting its work until a case filed by a former university law student was heard and determined.
Dr Mutunga assured the public that cases filed on the vetting of judges and magistrates, considered crucial in the first phase of judicial reforms, would be heard and determined speedily.
"We must allow the courts to make decisions and if we think those decisions are wrong then we can go back to those courts and ask them to vary their decisions. There are procedures for that and for appeal," Dr Mutunga said.
Labels: GOVERNANCE, KENYA, TRANSPARANCY
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TIZ urges sealing of loopholes in government procurement
By Bright Mukwasa
Mon 13 Feb. 2012, 12:59 CAT
THE current legal and regulatory procurement frameworks are not inadequate to promote transparency and accountability in the procurement process, says TIZ.
Appearing before a parliamentary committee on legal affairs, governance, human rights and gender matters and child affairs last week, Transparency International Zambia executive director Goodwell Lungu, represented by his good governance programmes officer Francis Mwale, said the current legal and regulatory frameworks were not properly enforced.
"The Public Procurement law and the Budget and Finance Act of the government of Zambia require that procurement plans and contract award information is published in public media in the interest of fiscal transparency and accountability. However, information on contract and awards are not in the public domain," Lungu said.
"Access to contract information by stakeholders such as CSOs (civil society organisations) involved in contract monitoring is limited.
Partly this is due to poor disclosure and dissemination of relevant contract details which is compounded by the lack of an access to information Act so as to allow stakeholders to access relevant materials on procurement contracts and works."
Lungu said there was need for the access to information law to help monitoring contract performance.
He said the agreements signed between the companies and individuals with the government tended to give companies incentives to default the contract because they were done in secrecy and that was what had caused increased levels of the misappropriation of funds and corruption in the procurement process over the past years.
Lungu also said there was need to tighten the loopholes in the public expenditure management system which caused government to lose huge sums of money through leakages.
Labels: PROCUREMENT SYSTEMS, TIZ, TRANSPARANCY
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Minerals receipts oversight must extend to private mines
10/02/2012 00:00:00
by Tafadzwa Calvin Sengwe
THE Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association will be holding a planning session to establish a Zimbabwe chapter of the ‘Publish What You Earn’ campaign in Harare on February 15, 2012. This is indeed a noble idea.
The objective of this campaign is to lobby the government and the mining industry to make public their transactions in respect of recipients of all payments made which includes purchases, consultancy work, statutory payments etc.
This concept will, in the main, eliminate the practice of corruption. If organisations are made to publish their revenues and how they spent their money, then funds committed for vice activities like corruption will be easily identified.
Publish What You Earn then increases accountability and transparency as no organisation would like to tell the public that they are involved in corruptive activities.
It is commendable that the government of Zimbabwe has already embraced this concept. Through the Ministry of Mines, the nation has been told how much is to be expected out of the diamonds sales from Marange diamond fields, details of the foreign investors involved and quantum of diamond sold. These announcements by Mpofu are unique as they have never been made since the arrival of the Pioneer Column.
However, it is worrying to note that multinational corporations who pride themselves as champions of corporate governance claiming to uphold the principles of transparency and accountability have shunned, for a long time, this noble concept.
For example, mines around the country – despite having been in business for the past fifty years – have never published how much they have mined, how much and to whom they have sold the minerals and how much profit was remitted out of the country. No records have been proffered to the public on how much these big companies are paying in taxes to the relevant authorities. It is all shrouded in secrecy.
It is high time organisations like mines published these statistics so that local communities from where they extract these minerals know how much these companies are making. The hope is that these mines would increase investments in local communities rather than expropriate all profits to their parent companies.
Transparency and accountability should not only be demanded of the government but all organisations.
In December 1999, Global Witness published a report called A Crude Awakening, an exposé of the apparent complicity of the oil and banking industries in the plundering of state assets during Angola’s 40-year civil war. It became clear that the refusal to release financial information by major multinational oil companies aided and abetted the mismanagement and embezzlement of oil revenues by the elite in the country. The report concluded with a public call on the oil companies operating in Angola to ‘publish what you pay’.
It was clear, however, that the lack of transparency in the extractive industries was also a significant concern in other resource-rich but poor countries. Therefore, in June 2002, Global Witness along with other founding members, CAFOD, Open Society Institute, Oxfam GB, Save the Children UK and Transparency International UK, launched the worldwide PWYP campaign, calling for all natural resource companies to disclose their payments to governments for every country of operation.
The small founding coalition of NGOs was soon joined by others such as Catholic Relief Services, Human Rights Watch, Partnership Africa Canada, Pax Christi Netherlands and Secours Catholique/CARITAS France, along with an increasing number of groups from developing countries.
In Zimbabwe, coincidentally, the campaign is being launched at the height of political contestations on the Marange diamond fields receipts. This is interesting. Mining in Zimbabwe has been happening since 1890 to date. The focus on mining must not seem to be confined to the three existing diamond mining companies but an open campaign must be directed to the entire industry.
There has been deafening silence in the past by civil society on the exploitation of mineral resources by Western-owned mining houses. In fact, we started to see civil society interest in mining when the government of Zimbabwe took over the Marange diamond fields. There is nothing wrong at all with civil society having oversight on the Marange diamonds, but that oversight must not be confined to this area only.
We would want Shamiso Mutisi and Farai Maguwu, prominent civic rights activists, to do assessments at Zimplats, How Mine, Murowa diamonds etc. This noble campaign must not be abused for cheap political mileage but executed in a manner that forces all mining houses to account for their proceeds.
The launch is going to be held two days before the European Union meets to review the sanctions regime on Zimbabwe. The campaign will be contemptuously dismissed if it only focuses on mining activities where black capital is involved and ignores western-owned mining enterprises.
Tafadzwa Calvin Sengwe is a Human Rights and Environmental Law Director with Resources Exploitation Watch. You may contact him on tcsengwe@yahoo.com
Labels: MINING, TRANSPARANCY
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TIZ demands transparency in all public appointments
By Bright Mukwasa
Sun 22 Jan. 2012, 13:30 CAT
TIZ says the vacuum created by the dissolved parastatal boards attracts political patronage and presents real opportunities for corruption, plunder of resources and abuse of office.
And Transparency International Zambia chapter president Reuben Lifuka has advised the government not to subscribe to the notion that boards of parastatals should be composed of people whose only qualification is being good and loyal political cadres.
In an interview, Lifuka demanded transparency and accountability in all public appointments, saying it would not do for ministers to handpick people for positions in parastatals based on unknown criteria.
He said TIZ noted with concern that it was over three months now since a number of boards of directors for parastatal bodies were dissolved by President Michael Sata and for some institutions like ZNBC, the tenure of the board expired a long time ago.
"This vacuum attracts political patronage as exhibited by the appointment of an acting postmaster general by the Minister of Transport, Works, Supply and Communication Yamfwa Mukanga. Clearly, if the Board was in place, it should have been given this mandate to advertise, recruit and appoint a replacement for the post-master general. We have seen similar appointments to positions of authority made by ministers usurping the powers of boards of directors," Lifuka said.
"The same message goes to other Cabinet ministers who have the responsibility of putting in place boards of directors; this omission cannot go on for much longer and they need to cure this by taking action at the earliest opportunity. Such vacuums in leadership and management oversight, present real opportunities for corruption, plunder of resources and abuse of office."
He urged that the old system employed by the previous regime where ministers filled boards of directors with incapable friends, colleagues and cadres should stop forthwith.
Lifuka said one of the reasons a number of parastatals were limping was that they had ‘very poor quality' board members, most of whom hardly had knowledge and skills to serve in that capacity.
"We insist that the PF government will be doing Zambians a great injustice if it adopts the same bad traits of the past which were anchored on political appeasement and patronage. One of the causes of corruption in the past was the abuse of discretionary power and some of the decisions we have witnessed in the last few months demonstrates a great need to curb any tendencies towards excesses in the discharge of public functions," he said.
Lifuka said in the case of ZAMPOST, the solution to the problems did not lie in political appointments such as the one made by Mukanga, but rather in developing and implementing a comprehensive strategy of turning around the operations of the postal services entity which was faced with numerous challenges.
"It is important that Cabinet ministers move from being mere status quo managers to transformative leaders who will bring about sustainable changes in their ministries," he said.
Lifuka told President Sata and his government that the honeymoon was over and it was time to move away from expending energies and resources on non-issues and start dealing with the root causes of the several challenges that the country was facing.
Labels: PARASTATALS, REUBEN LIFUKA, TIZ, TRANSPARANCY
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Donors await improved accountability from LDCs
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Wed 04 Jan. 2012, 13:25 CAT
KEY donors are still willing to continue helping African countries despite the prolonged eurozone debt crisis but that would depend much on recipient countries improving accountability, says EIF executive director Dorothy Tembo.
Tembo, head of Genève-headquartered Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF), a multi-donor programme, which supports LDCs to be more active players in the global trading system by helping them tackle supply-side constraints to trade, admitted that key donors were currently financially stressed by the prolonged eurozone threatening the continued relevance of the European Union.
"The resources are still there. If anything, from our programme, the development partners have clearly said LDCs remain a priority," Tembo said about the programme which operates in 47 LDC countries, the bulk of operations being in Africa.
"The only thing they emphasise, you have LDCs ensuring that the resources that are provided are able to be accounted for in terms of the results that are obtaining; that you can progressively start seeing the impact on the ground in terms of contributing to poverty reduction efforts."
She said although the donor resource envelope had shrunk, the developmental needs of LDCs still remained a high priority.
"You may see a situation where there will be cuts by some countries that have been traditionally providing support," she said.
"That message has been clear to everyone. But within that adjustment, I am convinced the LDCs remain a priority for the development partners because the message they keep coming forward with is that they have challenges themselves. Resources are there, it's more of a challenge on the part of the countries LDCs to be able to utilise these resources in a meaningful way and quite understandably, a number of poor countries at the same time do not have the necessary capacity to be able to develop the projects that would be processed by the EIF board."
Tembo, a former director of foreign trade in the Ministry of Commerce praised the PF government's commitment to EIF programme which was started under the MMD regime.
"We had a very positive exchange with minister commerce minister Robert Sichinga and we are happy that they PF government are absolutely committed to the programme," said Tembo.
Zambia is currently trying to reorganise the national EIF structure, under the tier one, with specific focus on honey collectors from North Western and Central provinces and the dairy sector in Southern Province.
Labels: CORRUPTION, DONORS, TRANSPARANCY
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Caritas assures Judiciary of endless public scrutiny
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 04 Jan. 2012, 13:56 CAT
SAMUEL Mulafulafu says the public will continue to judge the performance of the Judiciary to ensure fairness. Commenting on Chief Justice Ernest Sakala's appeal to newly-appointed judges and magistrates to change the negative image of the institution, Mulafulafu, who is Caritas Zambia executive director, said people wanted action and not mere talk.
Mulafulafu said even though most members of the public were not lawyers, they would continue to question some of the decisions the institution made.
He appealed to the office of the Chief Justice to take a leading role by talking to all officers of the court.
"The comment is welcome; at all times the head of the Judiciary should be seen to be encouraging integrity in the Judiciary. And as he rightly pointed out, the public perception out there is that of disrespect only in the performance of the Judiciary. And the Judiciary should be seen to walk the talk. The improvement will continue to be judged by the public even when they are not lawyers themselves. They will continue to see how the Judiciary operates," Mulafulafu said.
"If they Judiciary show the same weaknesses, definitely the indictment will be on the supervising office that it's not doing its job."
Mulafulafu said it was good that the Chief Justice had taken the decision to appeal to the Judiciary to do the right thing because for anything wrong in the Judiciary, somebody had to be accountable.
"He is the head of the Judiciary; he will get the blame," he said.
He said it was difficult for the Judiciary to uphold justice if the public perceived that it had no integrity.
Mulafulafu challenged justice Sakala to back his words with action and improve the institution's image in the public eye.
"As he said, that they want to uphold justice and so forth, that has to be within the atmosphere of integrity, public confidence and ensuring that everybody genuinely receives justice from the courts of law. The fact that the Chief Justice himself recognises it is very important. But we hope he will follow his work; that it will not be a situation of rhetoric," said Mulafulafu.
"The perception the public has out there is negative, and positive action is needed. Judicial officers should do their best to be objective. We hope it is not a fact of mere talking expected from somebody who is the head of the Judiciary but that even within the internal administration of the Judiciary, he will follow and talk to the officers there. The biggest problem that we have is not only suspicious judgments but also the rate at which the courts operate; the delaying of cases and also you don't see how the priorities are made. Some cases are speedily looked at in the courts of law while others drag for a long time. I think all those issues of fairness must be looked at if the Judiciary has to improve its image."
According to a statement issued in Lusaka last week, justice Sakala called on adjudicators to prove that the Judiciary was capable of managing its own affairs.
He said judges and magistrates should not delay judgments to allay the negative perception that the public holds against the Judiciary.
Labels: CARITAS, JUDICIARY, TRANSPARANCY
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Insufficient consultation within Sata's machinery worries Rev Ndhlovu
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 28 Nov. 2011, 13:58 CAT
ZAMBIA needs a presidency that makes decisions which have been thoroughly vetted and checked, says Reverend Japhet Ndhlovu. And Rev Ndhlovu has urged President Michael Sata to quickly spell out a clear roadmap on the constitutional-making process.
In an interview, Rev Ndhlovu, former Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) secretary general said President Sata's days in office so far had been very good even though there had not been sufficient consultation within his machinery to enable him make decisions that were above board.
"There are a lot of important pronouncements that have been made, significant pronouncements. He has indicated that he is allergic to corruption in some of his pronouncements. However, it has been unfortunate that maybe there hasn't been sufficient consultation within his machinery to enable him make decisions that would be above board," he said.
"I think we need a presidency that makes decisions that have been thoroughly vetted and checked so that when the President comes to pronounce it, it is in the interest of Zambians; the law has been taken into consideration but also you don't have people with dented records being questioned and all that."
He hoped that the government machinery would be able to help President Sata sufficiently so that he delivers on his promises.
Rev Ndhlovu said President Sata had made a number of progressive decisions, citing the investigations into the sale of Zamtel.
He said this was the right way to go and hoped the commission of inquiry on the sale of Zamtel would bring about the necessary recommendations and maybe reverse the sale and allow another appropriate mechanism to take place.
"So he has made good decisions, he had made a few goofs. We hope that the machinery around him will not allow him to continue making those kinds of unnecessary mistakes," he said.
And Rev Ndhlovu, who is now based in Kenya, said it was a good time to be in Zambia as it was very euphoric.
"Everybody is very excited and my appeal to those that are governing us, they must not spoil the party. They must not spoil the party for Zambians by making decisions that are unpopular, by making decisions that are not in the best interest of the country. The party must go on and poverty, particularly, must be fought so that the levels of poverty are reduced and people have access to the basic needs in life. That's what we need. We need to be governed right so that Zambia is developed and we can all live in peace and harmony," he said.
And Rev Ndhlovu said as a constitutional activist, he was worried that the constitution making process was not budgeted for in the 2012 budget.
"They are saying that there will be some change somewhere, which eventually they will use for supporting the constitutional process, which was a very big political mistake," he said.
Rev Ndhlovu, however, welcomed the political will to set up a technical committee, saying it was the right way to go but said there were some concerns such as the size of the committee.
"It is too big and then there are critical constitutional professionals or experts who have been left out who apparently have been helping other countries. I live in Kenya and Dr (Choolwe) Beyani came to Kenya to help the Kenyan government to have a good constitution that they have in place now. I don't know why he has been left out, there may be others so the size of the committee is rather too big," he said.
"In our minds, in the days we started talking about a technical committee, we were thinking of a committee of not less than 10, 12 people. And not a committee that will start again going to get submissions, going to the provinces to listen to what the people are saying but a committee that will sit down and do a desk top study by simply looking at what are the previous submissions, commissions that were there, what was it that was submitted. What are the progressive constitutions in the world today, what can we borrow from them?"
He said unfortunately, it seemed Zambia was using the Inquiries Act in its quest to come up with a new Constitution.
"I think there should have been a political will, like there was a will to create a Constitutional Conference Act. There should have been another Act quickly put in place where the roadmap is stipulated because at the moment, there doesn't seem to be a clear road map, the President has indicated that ‘the report must come to me' and meanwhile the Minister of Justice is saying and then it will go to Parliament and then to the people so which roadmap are we following?" asked Rev Ndhlovu.
"I think that needed to be clear, we needed to be sure which one we are going to follow but the political will is upheld, it is congratulated. It is the right way to go and then the next step, as soon as this committee with all its faults, as soon as they sit down is to arrange and agree on a roadmap, a clear roadmap that will give Zambians a new constitution at least give and take within one year, that's given with a referendum in it."
Labels: CCZ, MICHAEL SATA, PF, TRANSPARANCY
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CSOs seek more transparency on use of public resources
By Gift Chanda
Wed 14 Sep. 2011, 13:59 CAT
THREE Civil Society Organisations have challenged the next government to imp-rove transparency and accountability in utilisation of public resources.
During dissemination of budget execution and service delivery barometer report for July to December 2010 on Monday, the Civil Society for Poverty Reduction (CSPR), Transparency International Zambia (TIZ) and the Southern African Centre for Constructive Resolution of Disputes (SACCORD), noted with concern the continued misappropriation of public resources.
CSPR acting executive director Mwila Mulumbi said there was need to heighten levels of transparency in public funds utilisation.
"Based on the six scores, the July-December 2010 Barometer rated government poorly on its management and execution of poverty reduction funds. The government was given a score of 35 per cent, a mere four per cent increase from the January to June 2010 barometer, which scored 31 per cent," she said.
"The report shows that while there was notable improvement in allocations and budget releases to poverty reduction programmes in the period under review, irregularities still appeared in critical areas of the PPPs, hampering actual effect on poverty reduction."
Mulumbi said the report further revealed a poor score of 39 per cent on the government's performance in relation to transparency and accountability in the utilisation of public resources.
And Transparency International Zambia executive director Goodwell Lungu observed that the fight against corruption in the country currently had been limited to mare rhetoric with no actions.
Lungu said there was need for government officials to start publishing the disbursements for public scrutiny to allow transparency.
And SACCORD executive director Lee Habasonda said there was need to promote communities' voices in the budget preparation and execution.
Labels: CSO, CSPR, TRANSPARANCY
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