HH INDECISION A HUGE IMPENDIMENT – KALABA
By Chambwa Moonga
WHEN are you moving to Nkwazi, Harry Kalaba has asked President Hakainde Hichilema.
Nkwazi is the official residence of the President of Zambia at State House.
Meanwhile, Kalaba says the inertia by President Hichilema to appoint key government officials is appalling.
Kalaba, the opposition Democratic Party (DP) president, also says President Hichilema’s campaign against corruption will yield nothing, because he has kept many key people from the previous regime in sensitive government offices.
Hichilema, who assumed the Republican presidency on August 24, turns 60 days in office today.
Hitherto, the President has constituted a 25-member Cabinet, one permanent secretary (John Msimuko) at the Ministry of Green Economy and Environment, his aides at State House and Dr Oliver Mubita Kalabo (State House permanent secretary) – now acting deputy Secretary to Cabinet.
“We had given the UPND 90 days to settle down but we keep [on] seeing a lot of issues that are not going right. I was hoping [that] in the 90 days, President Hakainde Hichilema will move to State House,” Kalaba said on a Capital FM radio programme, hosted by Frank Mutubila on Thursday. “[But] I’m made to understand [that] he is still [at] Community House (President Hichilema’s private residence in New Kasama, Lusaka). That is an abrogation of the trust of the people of Zambia, and the President must check himself. He might be made to answer for this going forward.”
Kalaba, a former foreign affairs minister, explained that: “what has happened now is that the budget for his military regime has now become heavier.”
“You have now people coming from…Because there are two presidential satellite points – State House and State Lodge. [But] he has created a third one, which is Community House. Where a President stays, that’s a place that is…” he noted.
He indicated that former US president Donald Trump wanted to do what: “the President is doing.”
“He (Trump) said he had a better house than the White House. [But] the Americans told him [that] ‘we have given you this house. This is who we are as Americans. You wanted to be the President and so can you please represent us by being in our house,’” Kalaba said. “It’s the same with President Hakainde Hichilema. When you are President, you cease to be…Some of the decisions you make, are not personal. And even for the police, this route lining around New Kasama; people have to be stopped going for work, 30, 40 minutes. People have to wait for the President to pass. Traffic [jam] has to become exacerbated.”
He stressed that President Hichilema ought to move into State House.
“I know from my past experience that when a president is moving into a new place, everything is changed to give the new President a new lease of life,” he said. “So, President Hakainde Hichilema must consider moving into State House and give space to the police who have been lining up.”
Kalaba noted that while he did not know how the UPND was run, “from what I’m seeing, there is very limited consultation that is going on in that house.”
“Well, it is sad! On President Hichilema, something is not just right. Either the communication skills are very weak or it’s the ‘I know it all’ attitude. Why has he taken almost three months to finish to appoint Cabinet?” Kalaba asked. “Three months and government is still not complete! He was in opposition for 15 years. The President should have quickly moved in the formation of his own government. He has taken time! And if you can take time on a matter like appointing his government [senior officials]…Dr [Frederick] Chiluba was elected on the 21st of October 1991. On November 3, if my memory serves me right, he was forming government.”
Reminded that maybe President Hichilema was being “methodical” in his appointments, so as to bring in the government people from all provinces, Kalaba said: “I don’t agree with that.”
“You know, this is where we begin thinking that even the issue of tribal politics is just at the back of our mind. If you are good, I don’t care which tribe you are coming from. I don’t care about the issue of ‘oh! You are not coming from Luapula or if I appoint this one because he comes from Luapula…’” he explained. “For as long as you can deliver and you meet the criteria, get the job.”
Kalaba underscored that if somebody from where he hails from or the other region does not meet the criteria, there is no need to stop making appointments because government work suffers.
“I don’t buy into that (tribal balancing into government positions). He (President Hichilema) has taken time! We can’t be waiting for three months just to have a permanent secretary in a ministry,” Kalaba said. “A permanent secretary is a sub-warrant holder. He is the one who is supposed to be holding funds on behalf of government. We were told before that ‘no, I have not appointed permanent secretaries because I’m still trying to have auditors [to] go in there (permanent secretaries’ offices)…’”
Kalaba continued, saying: “[but] my experience as a civil servant for 10 years tells me that whether it’s an internal or external auditor, they can still operate even when the person (permanent secretary) is not there.”
“You are talking about the fight against corruption, forget about it. Just forget about it! I don’t think there is anything that is going to come out of this fight against corruption. Why do I say so? I say so because you kept everybody where they should be,” he emphasised. “You go in your house [and] you find somebody stealing from you and then you tell them ku bedroom wifumako (don’t leave the bedroom), nalaisa pakutila nje mukwita bakapokola bese bakusange ati wacingila mung’anda mumyandi (I’ve gone to call police officers so that they can know that you broke into my house). Will you find that guy waiting for you? You’ll move things around!”
He noted that some permanent secretaries, who had close links to the PF regime, were still in their offices today.
“These are grave issues. So, you are talking about the fight against corruption and yet your approach is cosmetic. I wish you well,” Kalaba said.
He further indicated that most PF officials and supporters are being combative today because: “you have kept them in offices for all this time.”
“They are combative because they are still living as they were living before. They are combative because you have taken three solid months to appoint a single permanent secretary,” Kalaba noted, adding that it is not everything that former president Edgar Lungu did that was bad. “He was tough on the [application of] the public order Act. He was strangling us – we could not breath. We could not talk. On that one, he was a disaster. But when it came to the issues of trying to show that some development was coming up, though the price was exaggerated, it was there.”
He added that for Lungu, when it came to making decisions – “even wrong decisions that he was making, most of them, president Lungu at least made decisions.”
“Wrong or right, he made decisions. He didn’t take three months. When he was elected in 2015, he was sworn-in around 13:00 hours and at 16:00 hours, I received a messenger from Cabinet Office with a letter of appointment as foreign affairs minister,” Kalaba recalled. “Yes, he didn’t appoint everybody. It took him two weeks. But he had appointed six ministers and about 10 permanent secretaries 24 hours after being sworn-in. A week later, when we came back from the African Union, he completed the appointments. So, at least he showed you…But here we have a problem! If you can’t see that we are having a problem of decision-making…And indecision at the presidency is a huge impediment.”
Asked on whether or not he would not seek audience with President Hichilema to tell him that he is veering off the right path, Kalaba said he would do so in the next one month from now.
“We’ll be writing to the President over our concerns, in view of the promises that he had made. I have the privilege of talking to President Hakainde Hichilema…I have discussed with him before, and I liked his attitude when I talked to him,” Kalaba said. “The issue here is when are you moving to State House? You have to move to Nkwazi. Nkwazi is a house built out of pride by the people of Zambia. It is a house built out of copper. There are only two houses [in Zambia] that are built out of copper. It is Nkwazi and the house of the Speaker of the National Assembly, because she is presiding over members of parliament who have been elected across the country. So, they (President and Speaker) have been given the pride of our country – copper. That’s who we are; we are a copper people.”
On the question of ‘is President Hichilema making the presidency simplistic, Kalaba said he could be very unfair to say that.
“Credit to him; President Hakainde Hichilema has tried to raise the bar from where it was. He has tried! The decorum of the presidency is getting back to where it should lie,” Kalaba noted.
“Congratulations, Sir, that you have lifted the bar of the presidency. But when are you going to Nkwazi?”
On intra-party concerns about his leadership style, Kalaba reiterated that the entire DP membership is solidly behind him.