18 August 2008
NORTHERN Province Minister Lameck Chibombamilimo says it is immoral and hypocritical for politicians who previously performed public functions and got hefty pay to now condemn the pay rise for constitutional office holders.
Mr Chibombamilimo said in Lusaka yesterday that Patriotic Front (PF) leader Michael Sata and United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema should be the last people to condemn the salaries for constitutional office holders.
He said it was hypocritical of Mr Sata and Mr Hichilema who had in the past undertaken public functions and got paid for their work to condemn the pay rise for the president, vice-president, ministers and other constitutional office holders.
"As a result of such public works, Mr Hichilema can today leave his profession and pretend to dedicate the rest of his life to serving the Zambian people," Mr Chibombamilimo said.
The provincial minister said Mr Sata had for most of his life worked in the political offices and was therefore conversant with how costly it was to carry out functions of political offices.
Mr Chibombamilimo said that in some instances, elected officers worked for more than the stipulated number of hours thereby justifying the need for salary increments.
"An elected official often dips into his or her private resources to carry out his or her duties because there has never and may never be enough resources to fund the activities of political office holders," he said.
Mr Chibombamilimo said the expectations of the electorate were high and could not easily be satisfied.
He said that the figures proposed for the increment were arrived at after sound judgement by professionals. He therefore said that it was highly immoral for the two opposition leaders to be against the move.
Mr Chibombamilimo also accused University Teaching Hospital (UTH) Neurologist Francis Manda of attempting to revive what he termed his fragile and ailing political career by using President Mwanawasa's illness.
But Mr Hichilema said that it was wrong for Mr Chibombamilimo to compare his earnings from private businesses to what constitutional office holders were demanding.
He said the monies that the constitutional office holders were getting were tax payers' money which should be used to pay striking lecturers at the University of Zambia (Unza) and junior doctors at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) among others.
"I have never been on the payroll of the Government and I do not get money from tax payers. I am a private businessman and if Mr Chibombamilimo wants to start doing business, let him do so," Mr Hichilema said.
Mr Hichilema said the monies that the leaders were demanding could be channelled towards paying retirees, doctors, lecturers and improving sanitary conditions in most townships in Zambia.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Times of Zambia. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
