My take on Sylvia Masebo’s wrong speech
By Kelvin Mambwe
1. The Minister’s Protocol and Public Relations Officers must be held responsible for embarrassing the Minister in that manner. These two are responsible in ensuring that the Minister has carried the correct speech and that the speech is free from errors. There shouldn’t be room for assumptions, they must verify.
2. In as much as the Minister could have browsed through the speech moments before delivering it, doing so in the presence of the Republican President amd other dignitaries could have been disrespectful. Besides, at that point, the speech must have been with the Protocol Officer who often accompanies the Minister to the podium.
3. Following the happenings in her Ministry where she has disturbed the corrupt cartel from continuing with their corrupt missions, we cannot rule out the cartel trying to embarrass the Minister in order to give the President reason to dismiss her. They have failed to get their dirty deals through with her at the helm of the Ministry. This has unsettled them. Recall that a few weeks ago, the same Minister was accused of corruption and to prove her innocence, she has taken the matter to court.
4. What happened can happen to anyone. We are imperfect beings.
5. The above notwithstanding, the Minister could have spoken off the cuff to avoid such an embarrassing moment and later deal with her officers. The calls to have her fired are misplaced.