HON. ENG. COLLINS NZOVU: THE DISCIPLINE OF PUNCTUALITY AND THE CULTURE OF NATIONAL RECONSTRUCTION
I wish to commend Hon. Eng. Collins Nzovu for demonstrating an admirable sense of punctuality and fidelity to public duty. According to reports from Livingstone, the Minister arrived for a scheduled meeting of the Zambia Institute of Architects, only to encounter a virtually empty conference hall. While others apparently subscribed to the notorious doctrine of “Zambian time”, the Minister honoured the appointed hour. Such conduct deserves national recognition and unequivocal commendation.
One of Zambia’s most debilitating impediments to national advancement is the pervasive culture of institutional indiscipline, habitual tardiness and the casual trivialisation of professional obligations. We cannot aspire to build a prosperous, industrialised country while treating time as an inexhaustible commodity. Every hour squandered through indolence, administrative lethargy and professional negligence represents an irretrievable subtraction from our national productivity.
The reconstruction of Zambia demands a major cultural renaissance in our national work ethic. Punctuality, diligence, accountability and professional excellence must become inviolable standards of public and private conduct. Nations ascend to prosperity through the cumulative discipline of their institutions and citizens. Our national transformation must therefore begin with a radical repudiation of mediocrity and the enthronement of excellence in every sphere of productive endeavour.
Hon. Eng. Collins Nzovu deserves the support and encouragement of the entire nation for setting this example. Good leadership must be acknowledged wherever it manifests itself, irrespective of political affiliation. A republic that learns to respect time will ultimately learn to respect productivity, public resources and the dignity of work. Let us rebuild Zambia through a national culture of discipline, industriousness and excellence.
Other Ministers might have dispatched an advance party, complete with an entourage of protocol officers, only to be advised against arriving on time. Hon. Nzovu simply honoured the appointed hour. This extravagant obsession with protocol, at the expense of punctuality, productivity and public resources, is among the pernicious cultures we must eradicate from our country.
When I next have occasion to be in Lusaka, I intend to pay a personal courtesy call on Hon. Eng. Collins Nzovu at his office, expressly to convey my appreciation for this commendable demonstration of professional discipline. Acts of exemplary public service deserve more than passing applause. They merit deliberate recognition and encouragement, for it is through the celebration of such standards that we cultivate a new national consciousness of duty and excellence.
Saviour Chishimba – Yehudah Ben David