Minister Musokotwane, how shall I as UNZA unionist explain K36 million partly unused CDF but no gratuities?- Austin Mbozi

Minister Musokotwane, how shall I as UNZA unionist explain K36 million partly unused CDF but no gratuities?

By Austin Mbozi

Dear finance minister ‘bo’ Situmbeko Musokokwane,

I am failing to defend my own UPND’s non-payment of UNZA workers’ retirement/gratuities packages. After coming second in the last University of Zambia Lecturers and Researcher’s Union (UNZARALU) vice presidency (VP) election, I this year re-contest, aspiring to create a friendly, mutually beneficial relationship between UNZA workers and government, like South Africa’s COSATU and the ruling ANC.

Yet, I cannot explain why UNZA pension/gratuity packages claimants are still owed some K746 million, worse than the K500 million where PF-thief thugs left the debt (there is also a K654 million superannuation owed). Even if UPND government paid some K300 million, the debt keeps increasing because more UNZA employees are retiring. Worse, UNZA package-claimants have been waiting since 2016, losing their money’s value in eight years! For example, a UNZA package-claimant would have bought 25,000 blocks at K4 each to build her house from a K100,000 package if she got her money during PF in 2016, but now she can only buy 16,000 blocks at an increased price of K6. Furthermore, if she had built her house in 2016 and charged K3,000 rent, she would have earned K288,000 by now. But she earned zero.

PF thief-thugs failed to pay UNZA because they stole. But UPND, to its credit, has saved/created huge money. The problem is their not prioritising UNZA packages. Secretary to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa revealed that constituencies failed to utilise up to K14 billion in 2023 (Zambian Observer 10th May 2024). So, the banks keeping CDF lent the used CDF to your government in treasury bills and government bonds. We praised CDF increases, but not where you deny money to those you owe, increase it on those you do not owe, then borrow it back from those you allocated it to. If this repeats itself, it will seem like funding ‘mingalato’ (deception).

Analogy: Husband Musokotwane labour-grew maize with his first wife called Maiguru (UNZA workers). When meal is ready, he marries a second wife called Mainini who did not labour (CDF beneficiary youths). Of the three food-plates (CDF) which he fills on first day (2023), he eats one and gives two to Mainini, but tells Maiguru, ‘I have no food because PF thief-thugs stole it’. Mainini became full after eating one plate. Musokotwane borrows it (treasury bills), but he does not give it to Maiguru. Shockingly, on second day (2024), Musokotwane increases allocations food (CDF) to four plates, but increases Mainini’s plates to three, gets one and again tells Maiguru (UNZA) to patiently wait!

Government does not owe constituents. It owes UNZA claimants who worked for their money. When you find some money, you cannot tell the ‘wa nkongole’ (creditor) to wait/starve his children while you prioritise feeding your children. Your creditors will feel insulted like Maiguru and UNZA package-claimants.

The UNZA packages problem is not caused by UNZA administration, education minister Douglas Syakalima, government technocrats, or President HH as some UNZA union officials and members think. In fact, I suspect that President HH is being blocked from knowing the full UNZA situation. He met union officials immediately after being sworn in, increased education funding, resumed student’s meal allowances and recently got an honorably UNZA PhD, recommended by UNZA staff. I don’t see how he can want to punish any UNZA package-claimant.

The CDF-buying-treasury-bills story, and the fact that you increased funding in nearly all sectors, makes us deduce that the problem lies in your finance ministry. UNZA management cannot afford to finish paying all these packages from government allocations, and UNZA is not a private university to be told to raise its own funds. Union officials are complaining that technocrats at ministries, guided by some presidential-appointee permanent secretaries (PSs) are simply pushing them around saying, ‘come-tomorrow-come-tomorrow’. When they go, they say ‘go and see ‘‘chite and chite’’’ or ‘‘follow-procedure-follow procedure’’. The fact is, some of these PSs are just inflaming their egos by claiming powers that they don’t have over the UNZA packages issue.

Let me warn you in advance, you ministry technocrats, before I join UNZARALU. I am not like those ‘ba’ ‘Some-Of-Us’ type who cover their cowardice in suits and perfume which produces a ‘ka smell’(kununkila not kununka) which follows them like a shadow as far as a radius of four meters around them. You cannot scare me. I am a village man trained to fight-survive while herding cattle. One day we lost our father’s cattle. Fearing our father, Andrew Mbozi, we wandered at night in the bushes around our home watching him seated by the fire-side, eating. When he retired to sleep, we sneaked into our huts. But he banged our door around 03 hours, standing on the doorway with sjambok in hand. Being the bigger boy, I explained on behalf of my younger brother Habulongo and half-brothers Hampoto and Hanzunga how we lost the cattle, while they nodded in agreement. I explained how a bully called Myboy Mainza who was also herding his father’s cattle grabbed our cattle-herding whips (mikwilo), ordered us to sit down and then he tied our hands against our legs, which we folded such that our knees touched our chins in the ‘kaddina-matako’ way.

Our father, like Okonkwo of Chinua Achebe’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, toughened us. We nicknamed him ‘para para’ (para military). He whipped us shouting, ‘don’t you have ‘‘balls’’ to beat up Myboy yourselves?’. His wives, ‘biina’ Modern my mother and ‘biina’ Hanzunga, feared to dare rescue us, their arms folded across their breasts and shaking. So, we shall pursue without baby-crying for sympathy for UNZA packages as we trained during cattle-herding.

The author, a war veteran of the anti-PF ‘jungle war’, will thrive as UNZARALU VP to get all UNZA packages paid before the 2026 elections, while simultaneously helping President HH to win the election. Email: [email protected], phone +260-978-741920.