Dr. Brian Sampa
ITS A VICIOUS CYCLE FOR CIVIL SERVANTS
During PF government civil servants were demoted,fired or even jailed when suspected of being UPND, sometimes even putting on a red attire was enough to be fired.Many Civil servants where frustrated and some of them have just been brought back by the new dawn government.We know that PF can’t agree that what they did was politically motivated.They used acceptable reasons to justify their acts.
We are in UPND,you can wear any color without any problem,but still all those suspected of being PF and those promoted by the previous govt are being demoted while others are being fired.The Govt can’t agree aswel that it’s politically motivated,they are using acceptable reasons to justify the actions.
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No one is saying there should be no demotions or promotions in civil service but the questions we need to ask ourselves are;
- Is it possible that all those who have been demoted were performing poorly?
- How were the indicators in their respective provinces?
- Are the changes going to bring about quality service delivery?
Yes we know some civil servants turned into carders for survival during the previous regime.Therefore this government should have taken a different approach because many people did things to survive.Not everyone in this country has the nerves to risk it for their integrity.Its like judging a slave for something they did for their masters when we Know that they had no option.This is not to justify their actions but not everyone did something bad.Others just remained neutral just to maintain their positions.
But who created this behavior in civil service?It’s the governments which come and go.They lowered the standard of promotion from hardwork and qualifications to Loyalty to the party.Civil servants are not neutral anymore.And they are not shy about it.
If it’s not stopped,this cycle will continue because the next government will also remove everyone who was promoted by the UPND and they will fire people as long as they will be linked to UPND.But things are not supposed to be like this if civil service is really not political.We need to develop career civil servants who can pass on the institutional memory in the civil service.But with these rampant changes which come each time there’s a change of government we can’t achieve that.
The down side of this is that people who are being promoted now should not even feel settled because their stay in those positions is dependant on the continuation of the Current political party being in power.So this means these will never be neutral because they need to ensure the government continues without change so they can secure their Jobs.But the fact is that no political party is here to stay.Time will come when things will change and the same cycle will ensue.
Our leaders need serious introspection as soon as possible.We seem to be going round circles while thinking we are bringing change when infact we are just changing players but the game is still the same.
There’s no perfect human government and there can never be.All we can do is try to improve with our imperfections.*
13//05//2022. BCS.