Today's letters to the editor

Thu, 15 Dec 2016 10:23:31 +0000

Kambwili should tone down

Dear Editor,

In the first place, I wish to pay tribute to our former information minister Chishimba Kambwili for vowing to remain in PF despite losing his ministerial job.

That, I must welcome with my full heart because if it was others I know, they could have been knocking on the doors of other political parties as defectors.

Mr Kambwili, you are truly a moral man and on this one you deserve my 100 percent pass mark.

However, having said that I would also appeal to you to tone down in your discourses because the people you are referring to as hijackers may just mean well to PF. Give them a chance to prove their point.

I am sure you are referring to new members that have come from other political parties who you think are there purely to highjack PF.

Remember the words of Jesus Christ when he talked about builders throwing a stone which later became the cornerstone of the foundation?

The people you may be demonising today may become handy to you and PF later. For now I think all PF leaders should be talking of unity of purpose if they are to succeed in 2021.

The part sectary general Davis Mwila too must show some resemblance of tolerance and be willing to work with those who have chosen to support PF.

On this front, I am referring to the 14 independent MPs the majority of whom were PF strong supporters.

For me and since politics and democracy is about figures, the ruling party needs those 14 MPs if some of its Bills in Parliament will freely pass instead of alienating them.

Indeed, time for politicking is over. The PF leadership should start delivering on its campaign promises and this is where Mr Kambwili should a play a bigger role as opposed to challenging invisible enemies only seen by himself. Josiah Soko Salima Road, Matero. 

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UPND needs change of leadership

Dear Editor,

Through your paper, I wish to ask the leaders of the opposition UPND when they are going to hold their convention to elect new leaders in preparation for 2021 elections and beyond.

I am asking this because some political parties have started holding conventions, notable NAREP and forthcoming PF and FDD.

I think UPND needs a brand new crop of leaders who should erase the tribal façade the party has been known for in many years of its existence.

Time has come for the UPND to become a national party and I am sure it can deliver once it begins to embrace people from all regions of Zambia.

If, on the other hand, it chooses to only remain strong in Southern, Western and North-Western provinces that is of course its choice but with an ugly cost.

Frankly speaking, this will mean that the UPND will wield power only in those regions and completely forget about State House.

But is that the core reason for forming UPND? I don’t think so. It has dreams of ruling Zambia one day and that dream can only come true if it embraces all Zambians by convincing them that it has what it takes.

To show hatred through hate speeches against those in power currently is not the right way of going about this assignment although I am also mindful that the opposition if there to offer checks and balances.

I am sorry, but what I am seeing in UPND today is a big frustration by its current leaders who want to spend their days and night attacking PF.

Again for me, I think that UPND can only develop a truly national party if its president is not Tonga. This comes from the fact that tougher tribes which had tried to takeover leadership have been unpityingly shown the door, like Sakwiba Sikota, a Lozi.

Mr Hakainde Hichilema should not hold the people in the three provinces to ransom. They should be given a wider choice of leaders to lead them to the Promised Land unlike now.

People in other remaining 7 provinces, on the other hand, are now convinced that UPND was only meant for the Bantu Botatwe which should not be the case in the modern day politics.

I may not be a prophet of doom, but unless the UPND leadership changes hands now, the party may be confined to the opposition camp for many years to come.

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Just a thought, Donald Chanda PS’ disappoint PAC

Dear Editor,

THE number of permanent secretaries as controlling officers being sent away by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) for poor faring is desolately rising by the day.

There must be something more to it than what meets the eye.

That permanent secretaries are senior civil servants who ought to be knowledgeable on most of issues does not need further emphasis.

They are the engine of government operations and are first in line of whatever programmes the Government implements.

But to come before PAC unprepared is not good enough and this is costing them quite a deal of embarrassment.

The latest PS to be sent away is Daisy Ng’ambi from Central Province who reportedly failed to produce evidence of action taken on various irregularities and misappropriations of funds as cited in the latest Auditor-General’s report.

Surely, if a controlling officer fails to take corrective action competently, who will?

Is it not because of this failure to take charge of situations that other officers take advantage of to plunder national wealth?

Each year the Auditor General’s report is full of reports of misuse of government funds with impunity, yet we have controlling officers in the name of permanent secretaries who should have been on top of things.

Can our permanent secretaries  affirm to the people of Zambia that  the story will be different in the next AG report or can we all simply guess that it will be the usual business?

Financial discipline even in individual scenario is paramount because in its absence well-intended plans or budgets will simply fail to take off.

So far, I think our permanent secretaries have failed this nation in controlling and safeguarding national resources which come into their hands through their appointments. Paul Daka, Chaisa, Lusaka