Fire Thabo Kawana
Nobert Mumba wrote;
So Government and Tonse have provided the answer to my question – who is lying? Between PS Kawana and Tonse Alliance’s Sean Tembo. Mr. Kawana was the liar.
This is a serious matter Mr Kawana must either resign or be relieved off his duties.
I have cautioned many times that there is total indiscipline when it comes to government communication. It’s not just Mr Kawana but everyone including Hon Mweetwa himself as they do not realise that there is a big difference between speaking for government and speaking for the Party UPND. To guide further,
1. Government doesn’t attack citizens in its communication regardless of whether what its responding to is from the opposition. It merely states government position as guided by law.
2. Government statements even if issued by Ministry of Information are formulated by the line Ministry and impact analysed by the information Ministry.
3. The Minister of Information cannot combine as he does government communication and Party communication.
He cannot as he does even use the government office as he and PS Kawana do to communicate government position. They should do so at Party premises or home or at a non government function. Hence why government leaders many times decline journalists questions when the question requires a partisan response.
4. Not every Minister should be a government spokesperson worse even different leaders of the ruling party now taking roles of government communication.
5. Government Ministers must protect the Presidency and take responsibility for their mandates. President HH this President HH that should be discarded because it appears the President is controlling everything.
– For instance PS Kawana, in his quest to place President HH in good light, during his press brief stated that the President had a week or two earlier ordered the evacuation of my late colleague Hon Nawakwi. It is not the responsibility of the President to order an evacuation but government through the Ministry of Health and fact that the Ministry failed to do this timely, blame now goes to the President as the one that could have been holding back the evacuation.
– In management we say “own up for your shortcomings”. This goes for so many things. Constitutional amendment – What President HH is trying to do is…1 x 3 Classroom Block the President instructed that…… Stop it, demonstrate that you have implementation capacity and think strategically because when things go wrong which is often the case, all blame is on the President. Right now a lot of Ministries are poorly run with some like dead but all is falling on the Presidency.
6. Finally, government communication must anchor on solid and truthful information and data. There is a lot of misinformation on impact of what government is doing even with its good intentions.
CDF is an example if anyone has any doubts the impact of CDF is very limited as most of the funds are being misappropriated or misapplied. This is the 4th Year of enhanced CDF and so far about $500m equivalent has been disbursed if you convert at rates ruling in respective years of disbursement. Do you see $500m worth of benefit or investments in the country? Or if we localise it approximately $3m in a constituency? Of course NOT.
It is good Hon Mweetwa disassociates his Ministry and Government from the current fiasco but who will believe him? Where does PS Kawana gather courage to summon media and hold a national press brief? If indeed that’s the case then it’s indiscipline of the highest order.