Nonde-Simukoko under fire over whistle blower arrest order

Fri, 23 Dec 2016 09:13:36 +0000

By Buumba Chimbulu

 CALLS for the arrest of Mika Mwambazi, a whistle blower who reported racial abuse by Horse Shoe Restaurant by Labour and Social Services Minister Joyce Nonde are meant to instil fear and intimidation among Zambians working for foreign companies, the Zambia Society for Public Administrations (ZSPA) has charged.

ZSPA president Kelvin Esiasa has warned that it would be extremely difficult for Zambia to fight the scourge of corruption and other vices if government officials would expose whistle blowers and call for their arrest.

Mr Esiasa said it was unfortunate that Mrs Simukoko decided to side with Horse Shoe Restaurant owners who were the suspect of racial abuse and even ordered for the arrest of a whistle blower.

He said workers needed to feel protected especially that Zambia had labour laws which were supposed to be adhered to by all employers.

He was reacting to a directive by the Labour Minister to arrest the whistle blower who said there was racism at the Horse Shoe Restaurant in Lusaka.

“As the Zambia Society for Public Administration, we would like to register our displeasure with the Labour Minister’s remarks to have the whistle blower in the Horse Shoe issue arrested for allegedly alarming the nation.

“It is with sadness that we receive these remarks considering that the person in question was only trying to help the employees in their plight based on what she had witnessed at the restaurant,” Mr Esiasa said.

Mr Esiasa argued that Mrs Simukoko could not have ordered the restaurant to hire an experienced human resource personnel if she did not find any problem with the manner the company was being administered.

“The Ministry of Labour has a lot to do, and instilling fear and ordering the arrest of the whistle blowers is not important at the moment. Workers need to feel protected, seeing that they have a ministry that is mandated to look at their well-being,” he said.

He has since called on Mrs Simukoko to reverse her order to have Ms Mwambazi arrested for reporting racial abuse because the directive was not only misplaced but was encouraging employers to abuse their workers with impunity.

He also said Mrs Simukoko should advise employees on the proper channel of airing their grievances that pertained to their work.

Mr Esiasa further advised both local and foreign investors to make sure that they followed laid down labour procedures.

“The issue of casualisation should also be adequately dealt with so that employees in the country are assured of steady employment at any given time,” he said.