Having had Dr. Chilufya and then being left with Hon. Masebo is like having chicken put on the table with salt and pepper… then somebody takes away the chicken and you’re left with salt and pepper.
Lusaka, June 29 – Truth be told, President Hakainde Hichilema is a hard worker but he may still lose the 2026 presidential election because he lacks political leadership when it comes to the appointment of key public figures. People will, undoubtedly, judge him based on the performance of his team.
You may want to remember that when Zambia was pursuing debt relief through the HIPC programme, it was not President Levy Mwanawasa (or his predecessor FTJ) who was running around but Ministers and senior government officials. And Zambia did reach the milestone!
In the new dawn government, President Hichilema has usurped the roles of the Vice President, Cabinet Ministers, High Commissioners and Ambassadors, and other senior government officials, causing the wives of his pilots to live like widows.
His supporters used to defend him saying his performance is being talked about in every corner of the world, until I reminded them to the contrary that the world has no corners, that it’s round.
Political leadership, in this context, is the ability to identify and put those with the technical know-how, ability and integrity in key positions needing such expertise but one wonders why Hon. Sylvia Masebo is still our Minister of Health after having, consistently and adequately, proven her incompetence. In some countries, some university would have given her an honorary PhD in exemplary PSDI or Public Service Delivery Incompetence.
In the article I recently shared, “Masebo must be fired for lying about essential drugs“, I asked a very simple question:
“Whose interests should President Hichilema serve between those of Hon. Sylvia Masebo who was clearly comfortable with patients losing their lives to curable illnesses or those of the families who have lost their dear ones when government has the capacity to save their lives?”
This is the question that voters will be able to answer on behalf of President Hichilema. Having had Dr. Chitalu Chilufya as Health Minister and then being left with Hon. Sylvia Masebo is like having chicken put on the table with salt and pepper… then somebody takes away the chicken and you’re left with salt and pepper. How convenient!!!
The Daily Nation recently reported that Dr. Anna Chifungula, the ZAMMSA Board Chairperson, while appearing on Diamond TV’s COSTA Show, confessed that the critical and persistent shortage of essential medicines and other medical supplies has been caused by political interference in the procurement of drugs.
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Dr. Chifungula said when the new dawn government came into power, it decided to disrupt the procurement and supply chain of medicines by instructing that no drugs should be purchased from the country’s traditional suppliers for political reasons than capacity when there was clearly no alternative source. Put differently;
The new dawn government, with Hon. Sylvia Masebo as its Minister of Health, sentenced to death all the Zambians who depend on public health institutions merely for political reasons. How more irresponsible can a government be?
They say sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken. Maybe the Minister of Health should always be a medical doctor who has sworn to preserve life at all cost not a politician who is ready to take life to stay in power.
To those who may need further proof that President Hichilema lacks political leadership when it comes to the appointment of key public figures may want to examine the Mary Chirwa case, long before her nudes surfaced on social media.
Why did he take Mary Chirwa to the Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) at the time the institution was investigating her over a botched $10m deal at the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC)? This is not just lack of political leadership but equally abuse of office.
President Hichilema must have known before her appointment that the FIC had engaged a company known as Cyberbit to supply and install a cyber surveillance system which has never been delivered. Was she going to work as the DEC DG or as President Hichilema’s guard dog, having methodically cut the investigations?
During the said investigations, details emerged how corruption kickbacks from the cyber security deal paid for her lavish lifestyle with her promiscuous husband and pastor of a little known pentecostal church.
To mask her incompetence as FIC DG, she prioritize the courts of public opinion over the courts of law making a name through sensational newspaper headlines.
Also Read: Mary Chirwa’s appointment expose, further, Hichilema’s leadership failure, and here’s why!
As DEC DG, unfortunately, she failed to reproduce her FIC circus and President Hichilema was left with no other option but to unceremoniously redeploy her, a sad admission of leadership failure that he has delayed in the case of Hon. Sylvia Masebo at the expense of innocent lives who she has arrogantly continued to cut short because of her failure to understand her role as Minister of Health.
As I had earlier stated, leadership, in this context, is the ability to identify and put those with the technical know-how, ability and integrity in key positions needing such expertise. No country can develop with failed leadership instances in abundance.
Yesterday, I carried an article in which Hon. Edith Nawakwi is equally lamenting leadership failure on the part of President Hichilema saying Zambia can make a lot of money but that it does not have a capable leader who can motivate and mobilise the people.
“It is disappointing that on one hand you hear that France has given us $1m and on the other hand, Kagem is auctioning emeralds for $44m. Why can’t we get the security wings to mine on behalf of Zambia? Why, for instance, can’t we negotiate for a 49 to 51 percent share holding in the mines?” Hon. Nawakwi wondered.
Also Read: We don’t have a capable leader to mobilise national wealth.
She says it is the folly of our leaders that they have no agenda to use their country’s God given resources to develop our country.
“We now need to be asking, ‘Where are our minerals, the gold, copper, diamonds, sugilite?’ There is no need to be celebrating the $6.3bn debt restructuring when our annual copper production is way above that amount. We have all the minerals, we just need to refocus our energies to what we have, the agriculture and mining. The 20 years when the debt is due can be reduced to four years,” she emphasized.
President Hichilema’s praise singers always speak of the nead for me to preach loving one another. But I am a follower of the Chinese philosopher, Confucius, who once indeed equally said, “Love one another.” But he also said, “If it doesn’t work, just interchange the last two words.”
It may sound funny but when you think seriously about it, Confucius makes a lot of sense. People have marched, fought, shed blood and died for you to be able to vote, and then you show appreciation by voting for a useless political leadership! Where’s your patriotism?
They say in politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way. So whatever Hon. Sylvia Masebo is doing, President Hakainde Hichilema is aware and he is OK with it otherwise he would have fired her!
To those seeing us for the first time today but are patriots who share our beliefs and principles that democracy and development must be driven by Zambians, please remember to bookmark our website. We need a radical change of mindset to develop Zambia.
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