Going to Geneva not time to be sending perfumes for nephews, nieces – HH
By Kombe Mataka
GOING to Geneva is not a time to keep on sending perfumes for nephews and nieces who are home, President Hakainde Hichilema guides newly appointed envoy Eunice Tembo.
He also reminded envoy to Namibia, Stephen Katuka that, “before you dress nicely to go to cocktails, four times a week,” to remember getting the memorandum of understanding on oil and gas is signed next month.
President Hichilema told the Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Danken Mulima to prioritise fuel and fertiliser.
This was during the swearing of five envoys in Colonel Panji Kaunda (Malawi), Katuka (Namibia), Tembo (UN/Geneva), Paulo Osita (DRC) and Mulima to Saudi Arabia at State House yesterday.
He asked the appointees to get to know the agenda of the UPND government, which is bringing the country together and ensuring socio-economic development.
“A united country will deliver more for the people than a divided country. I know some Zambians have been saying we don’t like this methodical process. It’s the way to do things. Running a country is a big issue. It’s not an abracadabra issue. You gonna get your sequence right. You’ve got to understand what’s gone wrong in the last 10 but more seven years. Why the country went down? You can’t go and find solutions to a problem you don’t understand. And how to sequence your solutions, this is part of the process. So remind yourselves of the UPND agenda. And I know behind unity are issues of equity, fairness – opportunity for all. You are going to head missions. And we have looked into the missions that we inherited and they were lopsided. So don’t continue with that practice. A country is a composite of pieces. One of the pieces is the mission you’ll be responsible for. So look at how you can unite the team in the mission, bring fairness, equity. Then we will depart from the past for the better,” he said. “The second thrust is that the party you are serving through is to serve the people always, is to accelerate economic and social development. When we get this second thrust, the big one, it means that your mind every day in the office – you should ask yourself, ‘how many opportunities am I creating for investment back home?’”
President Hichilema noted that Eunice Tembo has been at foreign affairs since a young lady.
“You know what we want from Geneva. Going to Geneva is not a time to keep on sending perfumes for nephews and nieces who are home, no! Your nieces can buy perfume online. They don’t need you to buy perfume. Those are old ways. The new ways is to say WHO (World Health Organisation) is there and many UN agencies are there. How are we going to leverage on your relationships to benefit the Ministry of Health home? As you know now I’m champion for cholera. What does that mean? That’s your menu there,” he advised. “I know ambassadors, high commissioners, believe in cocktails and diplomatic stuff, yeah! But this government, wants economic diplomacy to take centre stage – on top there. Trade, investments. We can’t just be importing. We want to export. That means jobs for our people. This story I can talk about it for some time. So we will be monitoring you. Foreign affairs there are two PSs (permanent secretaries) there. You are not there to… you are there to get the job done. If you are tired, you know what to do. Work with these colleagues, give them support. Give the PSs and the minister support. Vice-President [Mutale Nalumango] just to record a message, we are all appointees of the people through a democratic process. And since we are all appointees of the people, let’s accept that each one of us is duly appointed and none of us is going to change another because you don’t like somebody. We were elected on the platform of change.”
On Col Panji, he said he knew everything in Malawi.
“We are behind schedule on the Mwami Border. Fix that issue. President of Malawi [Lazarous Chakwera] and I agreed on the date. We have lost the time. We lost time, we have lost transactions. We have lost revenue. No one is better than you as High Commissioner to Malawi. No one. I believe. You know everything there,” he said.
On Katuka, he said Zambia and Namibia was next month expected to sign an MoU for oil and gas. “Part of my personal agenda is to lower the cost of energy…So that Kazungula Bridge means something to us. So we can improve this economy. That MoU means from there we must act. There is no issue of I’m not an economist. This is not economics. Just get that thing signed – it’s your priority. Before you dress nicely to go to cocktails, four times a week, remember that MoU,” he said. “We love you. We believe you will serve the people of Zambia. Many people want to be where you are today. But to address those concerns is to deliver.”
President Hichilema said his government’s interest is to serve the people and not to be served.
“I’m a chief marketing officer. You are the assistant marketing officers for Zambia and Malawi, in Namibia, in Congo DR. You [Ambassador Osita] know what we are doing in Congo DR. The MoUs we signed. You can’t be isolated from there. Daily you have to talk to the ministers, permanent secretaries – what are we doing? How far are the MoUs? How are we implementing them? That’s your job,” instructed President Hichilema. “Saudi Arabia, we have chatted. You know why you are going to Saudi Arabia. We want to sell food there. That’s a desert. This man [Mulima], Vice-President, studied in Saudi Arabia and speaks Arabic. That’s why he’s going there because he understands the culture and what we need. So we expect transactions from there. We shared what transactions we expect from there.
Ambassador Mulima, a delegation is coming there to pursue what you and I discussed in Abu Dhabi. Two things, key ones, fuel, fertiliser. Your colleagues are coming there. From this hour after taking pictures outside, start making calls there that a team is coming there and prepare for success of the team.” See less