Given Mutinta
MWAMBA PENI’S APPOINTMENT INCENSES MANY PEOPLE
One of the hallmarks of a great leader is the ability to listen to the public.
Listening is not only hearing what is being said but acting on what is being said.
This is what makes leadership-listening always fundamental for an effective leadership.
I am saying this in the light of the appointment of Mwamba Peni as Permanent Secretary in charge of Remunerations at Cabinet Office, an appointment that has enraged not only UPND members but many sections of society.
The rile against Peni’s appointment did not come as a surprise because he is a well-known Patriotic Front (PF) cadre as revealed through his anti-President Hichilema, anti-United Party for National Development (UPND) and anti-people from the Zambezi region vitriolic thoughts he shared widely.
I do not want to open old wounds by recounting Peni’s dehumanising thoughts about President Hichilema, UPND and people from the Zambezi region because his spiteful media footprints are accessible without difficulty.
More incensing to any forthright thinking citizen is to see Peni, a well-known PF monstercat on the list of the newly appointed senior civil servants.
The political blood that runs in Peni’s veins is PF and no amount of UPND political blood transfusion into Peni can transfigure him to genuinely subscribe to the UPND political ideology.
Assuming that the appointment of Peni is a good basis for expecting him to switch his allegiance to UPND is like expecting a leopard to change its spots by changing its environment.
Peni’s dehumanising contemplations against President Hichilema, UPND and people from the Zambezi region point towards what even today he believes to be true about President Hichilema, UPND and the people from the Zambezi region.
Therefore, his appointment will mainly serve PF where his loyalty lies than the UPND led government.
Thus, the question many people are asking is how Peni a hard-core PF cadre found himself on the list of people appointed as senior civil servants in the UPND led government, an entity he detested with passion?
Was there proper fact-checking prior to making the decision to appoint Peni?
If there was, how come the vetting or process of performing a background check on him allowed him to get the appointment?
It is either the vetting system is run by dishonest or incompetent people or both to have cleared Peni for the appointment.
Besides, it is reported that President Hichilema said that he does not know some of the people he was swearing in as they were recommended to him.
Surely, is this not a cause for concern that President Hichilema can swear in people he does not know to work with?
Who is making these recommendations to the President and for what agenda?
President Hichilema should be very careful with the coterie that is being built around him by those masquerading as his indispensable right-hand men that may have an ominous agenda to make him “ciyuni cifwa amafwuta.”
If President Hichilema is methodical as he has made us believe, what is systematic or methodical about Peni’s appointment?
An appointment of a senior civil servant should not only be right to the appointing authority but should also appear right to the public to be served.
The appointment of Peni has been roundingly and resoundingly rejected by many people because he is not only enmeshed in corruption allegations that got him given a sack from the previous regime but he lacks sets of political beliefs espoused by the UPND led government to be considered for his new position.
Is there a shortage of knowledgeable, skilled and experienced senior civil servants in Zambia or in UPND to appoint such that the Cabinet Office will be served by Peni?
I am not censuring Peni the appointee for his past anti-Hichilema, anti-UPND and anti-Zambezi region thoughts he openly shared but simply indicating that the problem here in some measure lies with President Hichilema, why is he leaving out many deserving and qualified citizens and UPND members that suffered with him at the hands of these same people he is appointing?
What is the methodical justification for appointing PF cadres to key senior positions who were a thorn in the flesh to citizens and UPND members?
President Hichilema should know that appointing PF members who tormented the country borders on being an act of demoralisation and betrayal to citizens and UPND members.
Forget the notion that Peni is also a citizen and secretly contributed to the UPND victory because this is not the issue here but that he is one of the people who tormented citizens and UPND members. Appointing PF cadres who brought pain to society and to UPND is being insensitive to the principles of justice. Nothing can justify that not even the so called agenda for national unity.
President Hichilema should not be so quick to forget that had he lost the August elections, he would be right now languishing in jail as it was planned by the same people he is bringing close to his chest.
So let President Hichilema carefully map out his ambition and ideology for national unity because he can unite the country without appointing PF mafias and tribalists that caused indescribable pain to citizens and UPND members.
I hope president Hichilema will take an empathetic listening approach to the voices opposed to the appointment of Peni by showing willingness to listen, understand what people are saying and act prudently.
Ironically, this is the skill most presidents ignore, which leads to pent-up grievances and dissatisfaction among citizens and party members that may make it arduous to win 2024 elections.