Kennedy Limwanya
8 July 2009
(Page 2 of 3)
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.
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