By NATION REPORTER
APPOINTMENTS should be based on merit and not tribal balancing, former National Citizens Coalition national secretary, Simataa Simataa has said.
And Mr Simataa urged the new regime to come up with a Fast Track Human Resource Court to hear and decide on matters pertaining to individuals perceived or claiming to have been unfairly dismissed by the previous government before they were reinstated because some might have been guilty of wrong doing.
Mr Simataa said tribal balancing was in itself tribalism because competent individuals for a particular position would be denied an opportunity to take it up because of their tribe.
“Some people will be eliminated from their positions based on their tribe and not incompetence just to bring in people who are minority in that particular setting,” he said.
He said in an interview that the appointing authority ends up appointing incompetent people to certain positions in an effort to maintain tribal balance.
Mr Simataa however said appointments should be based on merit, considering the qualifications and capability of someone.
He questioned whether the appointing authority would be considering the tribe of a person when replacing public officials who might vacate office.
“So to maintain the balance, are we being told that if a Lozi minister is fired, the appointing authority has to find a Lozi to replace him? Otherwise not doing so would disturb the balance,” Mr Simataa wondered.
Mr Simataa said when practicing tribal balancing, the appointing authority was forced to deny certain people an opportunity to be in their rightful positions for fear of appointing too many people from one region.
And Mr Simataa said the manner in which the new regime was bringing back persons who were relieved of their duties by the previous regime was wrong.
He said the UPND government was firstly supposed to ascertain that such people were unfairly removed.
Mr Simataa said there was need to create a fast track court to ascertain whether fired individuals were just victims of circumstances before being reinstated.
