OCIDA breaks silence, speaks against regional appointments

The Our Civic Duty Association (OCIDA) has for the first time raised a red flag against an array of governance including regional appointments in government, willful failure to investigate and prosecute current corruption cases, the ever increasing cost of living, increasing intolerance, state capture and the chaos that has characterised the procurement and delivery of fertiliser. 

OCIDA has also cautioned the current leadership against self-praise and continued tendency of blaming the Patriotic Front (PF) on a range of unfulfilled promises, stating that such acts reflected lack of decency and respect for citizens.  

Emeritus Archbishop Telesphore Mpundu in a statement on the State of the Nation themed: “It is Time to Govern with Compassion and Respect for the People, not with Rhetoric”, said there was a worrying pattern that showed regional inclination in government bodies such as the five security wings, the judiciary, Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), National Assembly of Zambia, Foreign Service as well as boards of parastatal entities.

“We urge the government to improve its record on this issue as opposed to comparing itself to the record of a failure and attacking those who are drawing its attention to this important issue.” Archbishop Mpundu said in the statement made available to the Daily Nation yesterday.

Archbishop Mpundu was scheduled to address the media at Kapingila House at 09:00 hours but the press briefing was cancelled after some Trustees of OCIDA withdrew at the last minute.

The clergyman said national unity required more than doing better than the record of a failure. He also urged the government to professionalize the recruitment of Ambassadors and High Commissioners by ensuring that those appointed are subjected to parliamentary approval. 

“We have noted a worrying tendency where the Foreign Service has long been used by successive governments as a dumping ground for unemployed ruling party supporters. Patronage is not the best way of utilising public resources,” Archbishop Mpundu said. 

He also urged the government to initiate legal reforms that would pave the way for the transparent involvement of parliament in the appointments of senior officials into the diplomatic service.

Archbishop Mpundu also lamented that the new government was likely to fail in professionalising the civil service with a “cadre”driven civil service.

He said a professional cvil service is what made any government succeed in its programmes.

“We, therefore, strongly urge that the new government should as a matter of absolute urgency create a truly professional civil service,” Archbishop Mpundu said.

On the high cost of living and youth unemployment, Archbishop Mpundu said the new dawn administration won power on a series of promises that included reducing the cost of living and tackling youth unemployment.

He said it was unfortunate that the cost of living has risen considerably in the past one-year plus four months, with no discernible plan in sight on how to reduce it.

“People in our communities are very hungry, they are struggling to feed themselves and their families. We want to remind this administration that a hungry people is an angry people; you need not be reminded what caused the French Revolution,” Archishop Mpundu said.

OCIDA also expressed disappointment on the chaos that has characterised the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) which had seen the late or in some cases the non-delivery of fertilizer to farmers.

Archbishop Mpundu advised government to stop the blame game, stating that Zambians have had enough of the UPND blaming the former ruling party in the last one year and four months.

“What the people now wish to see and hear from their elected leaders are solutions to their myriad of problems; it is to see the implementation of the many promises that were made by those in power today when they were in opposition. 

We have had enough of blaming the PF for the last one year plus four months.”