Kennedy Limwanya
8 July 2009
ON his 207th day in office, President Rupiah Banda held only his second Press conference since winning the October 30, 2008 election, and the nation was pregnant with expectation.
By the time the June 24 State House Press conference was concluding, the words of the 36th United States president, Lyndon B Johnson, had come to pass.
That: "A president's hardest task is not to do what is right, but to know what is right".
A president is never elected to do what, in the eyes of the public, may look right or what may sound right at the time the action is taken, only to end up with disastrous consequences on the people in the long run.
Any serious president worth his salt must look beyond tomorrow and, where necessary, make hard decisions for the greater and long-term good of his country, which was what President Banda did 14 days ago.
Among the high expectations during the Press conference was how the president was going to respond to the plight of public service workers who had gone on strike pressing for improved emoluments.
This was a tough issue, particularly that the people on strike included health workers who are an essential sector of any society, which is why healthier societies are generally more productive.
Some politicians and the president's detractors were, not unexpectedly, already making fodder out of this strike and painting a picture of a country that was degenerating into chaos.
So the president was presented with a jigsaw puzzle; he would have to give the public service workers what they wanted to forestall further industrial unrest but with a negative impact on the national Budget or do otherwise and incur serious political ramifications.
What was he to do?
He decided to be realistic and not play to the gallery for ephemeral popularity.
Some public service workers had rejected the 15 per cent pay rise that the Government had offered them, although that was actually four per cent more than what had been budgeted for.
The initial 11 per cent increment would have meant that out of the Government's programmed revenue of K10.6 trillion, K5.1 trillion (47.6 per cent) would go towards these emoluments.
After the unions rejected the 11 per cent, the additional four per cent meant a further K145.3 billion knock from the expected K10.6 trillion revenue.
The meaning of this K5.2 trillion wage bill was that 50 per cent of the Government's domestic revenue would be spent on 170,000 people or one per cent out of the national population of over 11 million people.
Now, where is the justification?
"As Zambians, we must take the decision as to whether spending half the budget on this small number of people is right or justified," President Banda reasoned.
"If 50 per cent of the domestic revenue is spent on personal emoluments, how then do we provide other necessities, the social and economic infrastructure including schools and energy, defence and security which are critical to economic growth and poverty reduction?"
It takes strong and focused leadership to make such bold decisions when least expected as opposed to doing only what is politically right but without firm foundation.
"It is the advantage and the nature of the strong that they can bring crucial issues to the fore and take a clear position regarding them," says German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
"The weak always have to choose alternatives that are not their own."
And the current global economic crisis offers no kind alternatives, thereby inviting prescriptions that may, for some time, be quite bitter to take but eventually prove beneficial to the country.
President Banda has remained true to the promises he made in the run-up to the 2008 election although political opponents have attempted to distract his attention by dwell on trivialities that are of no benefit to the Zambian people.
Dora Siliya
They have, for instance, expended their energies on questioning the re-appointment of Dora Siliya to the Cabinet, this time as Education Minister after she had earlier in the year resigned as Communications and Transport minister.
The resignation had followed the findings of the Dennis Chirwa tribunal which ruled that Ms Siliya had breached the Constitution by ignoring the advice of the attorney general in the awarding of a contract to RP Capital Partners of Cayman Islands for the valuation of Zamtel assets.
After applying for judicial review, Ms Siliya was cleared by Lusaka High Court judge Philip Musonda who ruled that she had, in fact, not breached the Constitution by merely not adhering to the advice of the attorney general.
That clearance thus prepared ground for Ms Siliya's re-appointment to Cabinet in a move that President Banda defended at the Press conference.
"What is peculiar about accepting what the judge ruled? All along, people were saying let us accept what the courts will say and I do not understand why women groups are not coming out to defend her."
Some interest groups and politicians have even sought to undermine the independence and sanctity of the judiciary by criticising Judge Musonda's ruling and wondering how a high court judge could overrule the findings of Supreme Court judges.
Yet there is nothing political about this matter; it is purely legal, and what people should be discussing is the amendment of the law that allows the chief justice to appoint Supreme Court judges as members of tribunals.
The Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct Act of 1994 stipulates that a tribunal shall consist of three persons appointed by the chief justice from amongst persons who hold or have held the office of judge of the Supreme Court or the high court.
Surely, as retired high court judge Kabazo Chanda recently observed, it creates unnecessary conflict and embarrassment for the findings of Supreme Court judges to be overruled by a lower court.
While awaiting the amendment of the law, the chief justice could restrict oneself to appointing sitting or retired high court judges so that in the case of an appeal, Supreme Court judges would then come in as the final arbiter.
Besides, does Ms Siliya, like any other Zambian, not have the right to seek judicial review if not satisfied with judgment so passed?
Should she be crucified simply because she is a member of President Banda's Cabinet?
After being cleared, does she not deserve the current appointment? Is she not one of the most hardworking ministers currently?
Trivialities should never be permitted to blur the bigger picture just for the sake of political expediency.
That matter has been laid to rest, and President Banda, in fact, pointed out that he did not need to get permission from students to appoint an Education minister.
Given Ms Siliya's commitment to work, students will soon find that they have been given more than what they had bargained for.
There should be no denying that Ms Siliya is one of the most intelligent and hardworking ministers around, and what she needs, even from her adversaries, is encouragement.
Why is it that for a woman to be considered worthy of her place among men, she has to do twice as much as men?
Cost-cutting measures
Because of being too engrossed in looking out for perceived cracks in President Banda's Government, his political opponents have chosen to ignore all the positive steps he announced at the Press conference, among which is cost-cutting measures in the civil service.
Nearly everyone in the country is agreed to the fact that there is so much misuse of public resources in the civil service, and the president certainly deserves plaudits for moving in to pull the plug on uncalled-for expenses.
President Banda has since directed the Finance and National Planning minister, Secretary to the Cabinet and Works and Supply minister to put in place measures aimed at cutting down on public expenses.
These measures include a directive to all Government officials entitled to personal-to-holder vehicles to begin using them for their intended purposes instead of parking them at home.
There shall be no purchase of expensive luxury vehicles as utility and duty vehicles while trips abroad shall be undertaken only when absolutely necessary and the delegations will have to be reduced in number
The holding of workshops will also be reduced and, by all means possible, these shall be held within Government ministries and boardrooms.
Now, is this not a spirit of sacrifice that should be commended?
Or should all this be ignored in the name of opposition politics?
Constitution
At the Press conference, the president also exhibited his commitment to the speedy enactment of a new Constitution by directing that the National Constitutional Conference (NCC) complete its work within the 12 months stipulated by the Act.
From whichever side of the aisle one may argue from, it should be a unanimous aye that the biggest hindrance to Zambia's development has been a flawed Constitution that was enacted at the behest of the then overzealous government leaders, some of whom are now vocal shepherds of opposition political parties.
These leaders have never apologised to the Zambian public and continue to show disregard to constitutionalism by waging war against their own members of Parliament who have chosen to play a role in the formulation of a new republican Constitution.
President Banda told the Press that he would be meeting the NCC leadership to explore ways of accelerating the Constitution-review process.
"I am calling on the delegates to consider sacrificing in order to meet the deadline. We have all heard the calls by stakeholders for us to be prudent in the use of our financial resources, and the NCC should be sensitive to this and ensure the process is concluded timely."
Transparency and accountability
A number of alleged corruption cases have been exposed since President Banda took office on November 2, 2008 and investigations have been expeditiously instituted, with the results showing that such cases were, in fact, committed long before he was elected.
To show his commitment to fighting corruption, President Banda has not shied away from taking measures aimed at stamping out the cancer that has the potential to distort the national economy.
President Banda told the Press conference that his Government had completed the preparation of an Anti-Corruption Policy which will be launched soon.
To augment words with action, President Banda directed the establishment of a serious frauds unit under the Anti-Corruption Commission to specifically investigate complex corruption cases.
Further, he directed the setting up of a financial intelligence unit to monitor all suspicious financial transactions and ordered that forensic systems and procurement audits be undertaken in all the major spending ministries, provinces and spending agencies to ensure that weaknesses were identified and addressed.
Honestly, if the opposition chose to rise above pettiness, these are the issues they should be discussing and helping the Government with even more ways of fighting corruption.
It takes humility to give credit to a person whose point of view one does not always agree with.
If opposition leaders fail to acknowledge that something good has been done by their political competitors, it says only one thing about them; a serious lack of humility.
Yet, to lead people, one must first be humble and do away with all arrogance.
Besides, is humility not a mark of humanity?
It is like these politicians and their backers are so focused on the 2011 elections that they cannot reasonably see that something good is being done in 2009.
Zambians are not so naive as to be needlessly misled by individuals hell-bent on making State House their only destination, no matter what it takes to take them there.
Does morality not have a place in their hearts?
Hearses
When word first went round that the Government had bought 100 hearses, opposition politicians went ballistic, accusing President Banda of misplacing his priorities and having had a hand in the procurement process.
The politicians, who almost always see no good in what President Banda's Government does, wondered why hearses would be preferred to drugs in hospitals.
They did not take into account that these same people in hospitals, upon failing to pull through and succumbing to various ailments, need decent burials.
For them, it was time for yet another political onslaught on President Banda.
During the Press conference, however, this was President Banda's response:
"I wish to categorically state that I was not privy to the procurement of these hearses. This transaction was never brought to Cabinet during my time as president. "The transaction was purely done by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing without my knowledge."
Now, it has transpired that the transaction was done during the late president Levy Mwanawasa's time and the Local Government and Housing minister was Sylvia Masebo who has since spoken out and defended the deal.
The same critical politicians are now saying there was nothing wrong with the procurement of hearses as the dead need to be buried decently.
And they have not apologised to President Banda. What political opportunism!
Infrastructure
In any country, there can only be meaningful development by first addressing operational infrastructure such as transport, energy and communication, and President Banda is alive to this fact.
He told the conference that the Government had secured enough equipment to ensure that some of the feeder roads in the country were graded in the next few months.
On the programme to rehabilitate the road network in Lusaka, perhaps the president did not even need to announce because the progress is there for everyone to see.
For many years, Zambians have been resigned to the fate of having no tarred roads in their localities, and to, therefore, see the tarring of roads in areas like Ibex Hill, Twin Palm and Avondale is almost a miracle.
It speaks volumes about the Government's commitment to service delivery.
"I call upon all of you to go and see what we are doing with the Lusaka road network. This programme will be extended to other cities and towns."
Yet, not a word of praise from President Banda's sworn detractors! Is this not shameful?
Agriculture
For many years now, one of the perennial problems farmers in outlying areas of Zambia have faced is that their crops have been going to waste due to the absence of credible buyers of the produce, thereby opening them up to small-scale buyers who offer exploitative prices.
President Banda has seen the urgent need to address this problem, particularly the maize crop.
"In order to ensure improved market access for maize, Government has directed the Food Reserve Agency to intensify the crop marketing system this year by concentrating on buying crops from the remotest parts of the country while the private sector concentrates in districts and urban centres," President Banda said.
In that June 24 Press conference, President Banda came out real and without wearing a mask that other politicians would have done in the wake of the difficulties facing the country.
Zambians deserve respect
But here is one fact. Having problems is one thing, while having problems and doing nothing about them is quite another.
President Banda has exhibited that he is able to face these problems head-on and has not pretended to be the know-it-all type that other politicians claim to be.
At that Press conference, he chose to tell the people the hard facts despite knowing that deception is what usually sounds enchanting.
President Banda has been in this game long enough to know that deception does not pay; it only creates a tangled web whose extrication requires another form of deception.
Zambian people deserve respect and not lies.
This was President Banda's second Press conference since being elected president and it took 194 days since his first Press conference held on November 14, 2008.
Clearly, this shows that it does not matter how often a president holds Press conferences.
What matters is what he does even when he is away from the glare of cameras.
A country must be led as though one led not. A leader should only inspire.
That is what President Banda has been doing. He has given his ministers the latitude to exercise their sense of judgment to the fullest.
That Press conference also brought out the human aspect of the president and his sense of humour.
In the meantime, before the next Press conference, work continues.
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