Mchombo calls for sustainable job creation
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Mon 28 Oct. 2013, 14:00 CAT
ANGLICAN Diocese of Eastern Zambia Bishop William Mchombo has challenged technocrats to come up with a working formula that will lead to sustainable job creation, and not cosmetic ones, by supporting local small-scale entrepreneurs.
Commenting on the high unemployment levels in the country, especially on the part of the youth, Bishop Mchombo said the government alone could not provide employment to everyone.
He said youth unemployment had remained a huge challenge to the nation.
"Government alone cannot provide employment to everyone but it can provide a conducive atmosphere for small-scale businesses to flourish with the provision of right incentives like easy access to a revolving fund with low interest rates and less red tape. We see a good number of our youths with different skills wanting to contribute to the economic development of this nation but they lack capital and space to start their own businesses which are commensurate with their skills," he said.
Bishop Mchombo said if the government could provide marketeers with shelters for conducive trading, it should also consider putting up workshops for various artisans engaged, for example, in metal fabrication, manufacturing, motor mechanics and carpentry.
He also said there should be no favouritism when employing people.
"Giving preferential treatment or favouritism to people from one's own region despite their lack of the requisite qualifications for a particular assignment or job goes against the spirit of impartiality and the promotion of meritorious appointments. It brings up despondency and can undermine the peace of the country," Bishop Mchombo said.
He said corruption was a menace to the economic development of the country.
"This should be nipped in the bud whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head. Those in public offices should provide the necessary leadership in this crusade," said Bishop Mchombo.
Labels: UNEMPLOYMENT, WILLIAM MCHOMBO
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Duffy was champion for the poor
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Thu 01 Sep. 2011, 11:59 CAT
ANGLICAN Diocese of Eastern Zambia Bishop William Mchombo says late former Mongu Diocese Bishop Paul Duffy shall be remembered as a champion for the cause of the poor in society. Bishop Mchombo, who is currently out of the country, said Bishop Duffy strived to speak the truth at all times.
"I am very sorry about his passing on. Bishop Duffy shall be remembered as a champion for the cause of the poor in society. He gave of himself in sacrificial love for the wellbeing of the people, he pastored in particular and for all the people in general. True to his calling as a shepherd of the people he strived to speak the truth at all times," Bishop Mchombo said.
"As it is commonly said that the truth hurts, Bishop Duffy believed in his God as his refuge and protector against people who desired to vilify him or harm him for speaking the truth. The Church has lost one of its great advocates of social justice."
He said Bishop Duffy's death was a challenge to all clergy to learn to speak the truth no matter the conditions.
"It is a matter of fact that the Church cannot choose conditions in which to work, but that those conditions are given by God, hence the need to remain steadfast at all times. It is also important that those of our people who aspire for positions of leadership at various levels of our society in the coming tripartite elections should put truth and honesty on their campaign agendas. And our people should hold them against that. Our prayers are with the Church's faithful as we commend the spirit of Bishop Duffy to its eternal rest in the hope of rising again in glory," said Bishop Mchombo.
Labels: BISHOP DUFFY, BISHOP MCHOMBO, CATHOLIC CHURCH, PAUL DUFFY, POVERTY, WILLIAM MCHOMBO
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Bishop Mchombo calls for reflection on constitition
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Fri 08 Apr. 2011, 04:01 CAT
BISHOP William Mchombo says the defeat of the two constitutional bills in Parliament gives an opportune time to leaders to retreat and reflect on the need to deliver a truly people-driven constitution.
Commenting on the failure of the constitution draft bill to go through in Parliament, Bishop Mchombo, the Bishop in-charge of the Anglican Diocese of Eastern Zambia, said it was unfortunate that a lot of taxpayers’ money was spent on the Constitution.
“The failure of the constitution draft bill to go through in Parliament is not what we as a nation can be proud of. It is very sad and unfortunate. It sends wrong signals to the outside world that we are not capable of managing our affairs when the opposite is very true seeing the collective intelligence that we have as a nation,” Bishop Mchombo said.
He said the Church, which boycotted the constitution-making process, had been vindicated.“And as much as the Church has been vindicated, it is really sad that colossal sums of taxpayers’ money were spent to receive submissions countrywide followed by the sitting of the NCC only to reach a dead end.
The money could have gone a long way in ameliorating the suffering of most of our people.
This is an opportune time for our leaders to retreat and reflect on the need to deliver a truly people-driven constitution. People spoke through the Mung’omba Constitution Review Commission and are tired of piecemeal amendments to the national document,” said Bishop Mchombo.
Bishop Mchombo, who is the former Zambia Anglican Council presiding Bishop, is part of the Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) which boycotted the National Constitution Conference.
Labels: CONSTITUTION, WILLIAM MCHOMBO
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‘Difference is not enmity, unity is not uniformity’
Sun 16 Jan. 2011, 03:59 CAT
Our politicians, especially those in government, should pay a lot of attention to uniting and working with fellow citizens who differ with them.
We have come together from every corner of our country and we should be good at uniting in our work, not only with those who hold the same views as ourselves, but also with those who hold different views.
And this is the point Bishop William Mchombo was trying to get across to us the other day when he was advising us as a nation, as a people, not to shy away from pointing out any shortcoming that affects human development and shackles the majority of our people in perpetual poverty like corrupt activities. He said this was the essence of democracy and “difference is not enmity and unity is not uniformity. We should always strive for harmonious peaceful co-existence despite the myriad of diversities that we are faced with…”
There is need for the political leadership of our country to guard against arrogance. For anyone in a leadership position, this is a matter of principle and an important condition for maintaining unity. Even those who have made no serious mistakes and have achieved great success in their work should not be arrogant. Even if we achieve gigantic successes in our work, there is no reason whatsoever to feel conceited and arrogant. Modesty helps one to go forward, whereas conceit makes one lag behind. This is the truth we must always bear in mind. With a bit of success in our work, certain moods may grow – arrogance, the airs of a self-styled hero, inertia and unwillingness to make progress.
Many things may become baggage, may become encumbrances, if we cling to them blindly and uncritically. Having made mistakes, you may feel that, come what may, you are saddled with them and so become dispirited; if you have not made mistakes, you may feel that you are free from error and so become conceited. Lack of achievement in work may breed pessimism, while achievement may breed pride and arrogance. All these things become encumbrances or baggage if there is no critical awareness.
Some of our politicians in government have become arrogant and high-handed in their behaviour towards the people, always blaming others but never themselves, always seeing their own achievements but never their own shortcomings, and always welcoming flattery but never criticism. We must endeavour to eradicate these faults.
We should not let things slide for the sake of peace and friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and refrain from principled argument because he is an old acquaintance, a close friend, a loved one; or touch on the matter slightly instead of going into it thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is that both the nation and the individual are harmed.
There is also a habit of indulging in irresponsible criticism in private instead of actively putting forward one’s suggestions openly or publicly; saying nothing to people to their faces but to gossip behind their backs, or to say nothing at a meeting but to gossip afterwards. We should also not let things drift simply because they do not affect us personally; say as little as possible while knowing perfectly well what is wrong, being worldly wise and play safe and seek only to avoid blame.
We should also avoid the practice of hearing incorrect views without rebutting them but instead take them calmly as if nothing has happened; seeing someone harming the interests of the masses and yet not feel indignant, or dissuade or stop him or reason with him, but allow him to continue.
It is not right to be aware of one’s own mistakes and yet make no attempt to correct them, taking a liberal attitude towards oneself. These things are harmful to the nation; they are corrosive and eat away unity, they undermine cohesion, cause apathy and create dissension.
Criticising what is wrong is not a display of enmity or hatred. To agree with everything the key political leaders say is divine, but to disagree is treason. All critics must be crushed! The citizen must belong to them or be condemned. They are not ashamed to attribute enmity where it may not exist. Criticism per se is non-existent. Anything else is destructive. Opposition is an expression of enmity or hatred, not pure disagreement. They are incapable of being criticised without feeling rancoured about it. In fact, all the time, the impression given is that to criticise is to condemn or curse in the biblical fashion.
And as we have consistently stated, it is quite true that acceptance of criticism implies the highest respect for human ideal, and that its denial suggests a conscious or unconscious lack of humanity on our part. Intolerance must surely rank as one of the worst forms of immorality in human affairs. What is distinctly lacking among our politicians, especially those in government, is a culture of tolerance and humility which places the humanity of others before self and accepts that all citizens have a right to participate in the shaping of their destiny directly without fear of reprisal. They should take a leaf from Nelson Mandela when he says, “If the criticism is valid, it must be made.”
Those who truthfully and sincerely work for the common good should not fear criticism because the truth is on their side, and the basic masses are on their side. Opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occur in a nation and within organisations. This is often a reflection of contradictions within the nation or the organisation between the new and the old.
If there were no contradictions to resolve, life would come to an end. These contradictions and the struggles they generate are better than unprincipled peace that gives rise to a decadent attitude and political degeneration.
If we have shortcomings, we should not be afraid to have them pointed out and criticised, if we are servants of the people. Anyone, no matter who, may point out our shortcomings. If he is right, we should correct them. If what he proposes will benefit the people, there is need to act upon it. We must not become complacent over any success. We should check our complacency and constantly criticise our shortcomings.
Labels: WILLIAM MCHOMBO
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Promote just deeds and structures
By The Post
Fri 24 Dec. 2010, 04:00 CAT
POLITICAL competitors don’t necessarily have to like each other, but they must tolerate one another and acknowledge that each side has a legitimate and important role to play. Moreover, our ground rules must encourage tolerance and civility in our political campaigns and public debate. We think this is the point Bishop William Mchombo of the Anglican Diocese of Eastern Zambia is reminding us when he says that “…belonging to different political parties or being of divergent views does not make us enemies of each other in any way”; and that there’s need for people to be more hospitable to one another than to show hostility.
And, of course, as Bishop Mchombo correctly observes, this does not mean that we should be passive when faced with situations that need decisive action. When a system ceases to promote the common good and favours special interests, we must not only denounce injustice but also break with the evil system. We must be prepared to work with another system that is more just, fair, humane and more suited to the needs of the day. The truth of the matter is that we have to earn our heaven here and now, we ourselves. We have to build our heaven, to fashion it during our lifetime, right now. Salvation is something to achieve, not just to hope for. Wrong things should not be accepted; they should be fought and changed. Absolute love cannot abandon man to constant suffering and total destitution. We must change whatever it is that prevents the humanisation of our fellow humans.
As we examine the structures and the reasons why they are so intolerable, as we expose the oppressive situation, we are forced to a decision: we either commit ourselves or we don’t – but we will have to answer to our consciences for our choice. The process of conscientisation leaves no one with arms folded. It makes some unfold their arms. It leaves others with a guilty feeling, because conscientisation shows that God wants us to act.
As we conscientise ourselves, we realise that our brothers and sisters who don’t eat, who don’t laugh, who don’t sing, who don’t love, who live oppressed, crushed and despised each day, are suffering all this because of some reality that is causing it. And at that point we join in the action historically by genuinely loving, by having the courage to commit ourselves. But these rationalisations appear to be fake generosities. We say this because to escape our feelings of guilt, we go into philanthropy, we seek compensation by alms-giving, we send a cheque to build a church, we make contributions: land for a chapel or a convent for nuns, hoping in that way to buy our peace. But peace cannot be purchased, it is not for sale; peace has to be lived. And we can’t live our peace without commitment to humans, and our commitment to them can’t exist without their liberation, and their liberation can’t exist without the final transformation of the structures that are dehumanising. There’s only one way for us to find peace: to work for it, shoulder to shoulder with our fellow human beings.
But let’s not forget that oppression is so potent a thing that it produces fear of freedom. But freedom is something that is given. It is something very arduous, because nobody gives freedom to anyone else, no one frees another, nobody can even free himself all alone; humans free themselves only in concert, in communion, collaborating on something wrong that they want to correct. There is an interesting theological parallel to this: no one saves another, no one saves himself all alone, because only in communion can we save ourselves – or not save ourselves. We work out our salvation in communion. Each one of us must set out in quest of his salvation, we must do it ourselves. By saying this, we don’t mean that God hasn’t saved us by the divine presence in history: we are talking on the human level.
Every human being of goodwill is committed to changing a social order that is cruelly unjust. To refuse such a commitment would be to make oneself an accomplice of injustice. The poverty situation, we feel, is the product of unjust socio-economic structures. We should unite ourselves with the life of all our people in the painful search for adequate solutions to their multiple problems.
We believe that we are in a new historical era. This era requires clarity in order to see, lucidity in order to diagnose, and solidarity in order to act. For this reason, no sector should reserve to itself exclusively the carrying out of political, cultural and economic matters. Those who possess the power of decision-making must exercise it in communion with the desires and options of the community.
Peace can only be obtained by creating a new order which carries with it a more perfect justice among our people. And as Bishop Mchombo has correctly observed, we do not need to be passive in the name of loving peace when we are faced with situations that need decisive action. And the tranquility of order is neither passivity nor conformity. It is the result of continuous effort and adaptation to new circumstances, to new demands and challenges of a changing history. Peace is the fruit of love. It is the expression of true fellowship among human beings. And those who work for social justice should always cultivate peace and love in their hearts. We must love everybody, but not everyone in the same way; we love the oppressed by liberating them; we love the oppressors by fighting them. Love has to be like a classifying device to become universal.
We ought to sharpen the awareness of our duty of solidarity with the poor. This solidarity means that we make their problems and their struggles ours, that we know how to speak with them. This has to be concretised in criticism of injustice and oppression, in the struggle against the intolerable situation that a poor person often has to tolerate, in the willingness to dialogue with the groups responsible for that situation in order to make them understand their obligations.
As it has been observed by others, a relatively small sector of our society is making greater progress and growing richer every day; but the price for their progress is the growing poverty of the great majority of our people. Those who have plundered resources of our people, and who wish to keep doing this, use de facto violence against them to continue their plunder. This violence is often veiled under guise of a fallacious order and a fallacious legality, but it is violence and injustice nonetheless. We appreciate the importance of the rule of law and of the need of every state to have the power to maintain order and punish criminal acts. But the rules and procedures by which the state enforces its laws must not be arbitrary or subject to political manipulation by those in power. The right to equality before the law, or equal protection of the law as it is often phrased, is fundamental to any just and democratic society. Whether political ally of those in power or opponents – all are entitled to equal protection before the law. And under no circumstances should the state impose inequalities; it should be required to deal evenly and equally with all its people.
And as we have witnessed over the last few months, no anti-corruption strategy, no matter how well-designed and well-intended, can succeed without a broader commitment to two overarching requirements: the first is an independent judicial system based on a rule of law regime. And that includes the concept of due process and the principle that the rule of law applies equally to everyone – from the poorest and least-privileged among us to the highest echelons of government and society. The second requirement is a government that is open, accountable and transparent. We should strengthen the rule of law’s position as the foundation of our governance system. This means, among other things, that our court system must be able to function independently so that all people can be confident of fair and equitable treatment. They won’t get off, maybe, but they will get fair hearing. And as we have also seen with the corruption cases that have been before our courts and other tribunals, erecting laws and institutions as barriers against corruption is not in itself enough. Laws and institutions can’t work very well in a society where all institutions of the state and government have been contaminated by corruption; can’t work well in a society that doesn’t also have a culture of trust and an atmosphere of openness and accountability.
And as Bishop Mchombo has observed in his Christmas message, as disciples of Christ, people are called upon to promote just deeds and just structures at every level of the nation and to be peacemakers. But to do this, one has to be moved with indignation whenever an injustice, a wrong is committed against anyone in our country. This is the only way one can truly be a follower of Christ, whose birth tomorrow we celebrate. We say this because Christ’s entire doctrine was devoted to the humble, the poor; his doctrine was devoted to fighting against abuse, injustice and the degradation of human beings.
Labels: WILLIAM MCHOMBO
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