THE 6 MONTH RULE – SHAMELESSLY BLAMING PREDECESSORS
23 December 2023
In change management, there is something that is called “The Six Months Rule”. That means that when you take over a role, you are at liberty to blame your predecessor for all that goes wrong. This is an acceptable practice, but is only allowed to go on for six (6) months. This is known as the honeymoon period’’.
Six months is an acceptable time for you to settle into your role and to take complete charge. After that period, the country is now squarely within your hands and you must take the blame when anything goes wrong as the ‘honeymoon’ is now over. Failure after the six months period will and must be heaped on the person holding office.
After the 1991 elections, Movement for Multi Party Democracy (MMD) had inherited an economy that was in a much worse state than what the United Party for National Development (UPND) inherited from the Patriotic Front (PF). Within six months of MMD taking over power, there was a visible improvement in the economy. The MMD did not continue to point at UNIP but simply rolled up their sleeves and got their work done. But then again, that was a different breed of leadership – men and women that faced problems head on and not given to posturing.
The UPND has been in power for 28 months (two years and four months) and to this day, point to the PF for their own ineptitude and incompetence. Take the case in point of Honourable Gary Nkombo smugly telling the nation that street vendors have come back on the streets because Edgar Lungu has come back into politics. How ridiculous is that? Why not just use the Council Police to get rid of those Vendors that have come back on the streets?
Who can blame Honourable Nkombo for this though. When predecessors are blamed, a culture of ‘coping out’ of accepting responsibility becomes the order of the day and becomes entrenched – becomes a culture. This has now become the modus operandi for the UPND.
Pointing to predecessors, for all of UPND’s failings, is such a tired tactic. As Zambians, we are frankly tired of this and are looking for performance.
When someone offers themselves for a position of leadership, they are in effect saying that they are aware of the problems that they are going to inherit as well as those that will arise during their tenure and that they are well able to resolve both sets of problems. To continue to point at your predecessor is an admission of failure to handle these issues. If this be the case, then the UPND need to own up to their failures so that we may look elsewhere for our solutions.
Come 2024, we do not want to hear the name PF in the mouths of the UPND in Government. Please take charge, so that it can be seen that you are completely in control of the country.
CHISHALA KATEKA
President – New Heritage Party
It’s true what they say bad company corrupts good morals. I used to think Ms. Kateka was one of the reasonable opposition leaders we have in the country but alas after been found with characters like Ms. Saboi she sounds just like them. For starters, debt criss was created by the PF and we can’t run away from that fact whichever way one looks at it and the problem is still with us. Surely is it wrong to tell the truth about who caused the problem in the first place? Secondly, to say benefits started showing within 6 months during the MMD time is very far from the truth. It took over 10 years for benefits to start showing during the MMD government which was in the Mwanawasa tenure. Just to remind Ms. Kateka, wage freeze was still effect by 1996/97 which 6/7 years in the MMD tenure so I don’t know the 6 months Ms. Kateka is talking about. I had a lot of hope in Ms. Kateka but I’m starting to think I was wrong.
Madam you are now becoming irrelevant. We had hope that like the founder, Brigadier General Miyanda, you might provide a formidable opposition. You have been in existence for more than 30 months as “New” Heritage party yet gave FAILED to field a candidate in by elections that have taken place, not even at Ward level. You have FAILED. Yet you have the audacity to call the UPND govt as incompetent! As an economist and accountant you know that you always use history to make decisions of the future. Whenever HH does not toe your line of thought you attack him. When are you building your party and selling your manifesto? When are you going to start participating in by elections to gauge your popularity so that when you claim to “speak on behalf of suffering zambians” we can put figures to the sufferers. As it is you are merely receiving funding from PF and helping them bankroll their ill gotten wealth.
UPND are just conmen pretending to be saints. They are thieves looting our mines.
There should be a law banning Hakainde from giving away our mines to his foreign white masters. He can give away assets from his province, but let him not touch assets in other provinces. He is a conman that impotent cowboy.
Even unip should be blamed what is happening now. YOu don’t build a strong robust economy that can absorb at least 90% of the employable citizens, that has indegenous billionaires who run and manage the natural resources zambia is endowed with, A country that exports more than importing as a result its exchange rate is strong and inflation / cost of living stable.A country with developed infrastructure, that grows most of its food , an economy that finances its own budget.
It takes years of growth and good steady and unwavering policies .
If you think you think you can vote for a party because they promised you cheap mealie meall and fuel and its going to happen by magic then you are not wise.Things l8ke growing an economy and effects felt on the ground takes many years of hard work.
Madame, you are missing the point here, each problem has its genesis and you can’t stop talking about that genesis. The Bible tells us that the devil is the causer of all the miseries and woes that we have in this world. So if God has not stopped talking about the devil, why should UPND stop talk about PF? PF ruined this country because their president gave them an impression that Zambia is a field and PF officials were workers in this field and were at liberty to eat as much as they could and wanted in the field they worked. As if it was not enough, cadres were also told by their SG Davies Mwila to take over and control the markets and bus stations and you know the chaos which followed. Cadres started sleeping on money, traffic officers became mobile toll gates, kasaka ka ndalama became a fashion for PF officials. No one cared about the economy any more and today you want UPND to stop talking about these things, for the first time, I am very disappointed with you.
Ba Kateka, the effects of the damage that PF wrought upon our country will continue to reverberate for generations to come. Hence it is not realistic to forget about PF.
PF must not be allowed any peace for what they put our nation through. We must constantly remind ourselves of their greed and total disregard for the nation’s welfare lest, we repeat voting into power a similar party.
We forgot about the debt burden under UNIP and how it dehumanized us and as a result PF went on a borrowing binge and got us into a debt trap barely a generation after UNIP.
So ba Kateka, it is in order to rightly blame PF for our current hardships and we will keep doing so while we address the mess they created.
Madam Chishala Kateka, with all due respect, do you still have honest friends to advise you and tell you the truth about your political fortunes?
You started off very well but of late, you have lost the distinct self due to bad political associations.
We were hopeful we had the right female to make it to the top but alas, you don’t have what it takes!
Just save face and find something worthwhile to do!