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Executive Issues
Volume 12 - June 2009
 
Volume 12 May 2009
Contents
To pg 2
Divided They Stand:The Creeping Public Service Strike
- Page 3
Passport Jitters in the Diaspora
- Page 4
Local Authorities: “The LagosScenario?”
- Page 5
Debt Contraction Clause Referred toNational Referendum
- Page 6
Global Fund Director To Visit Zambia
- Page 7
AID: Between A Rock and a Hard Place
- Page 8
Siavonga Ponders Uranium - Page 9Orbituary - Francis Xavier Nkhoma
- Page 11
Professional Soccer League Mooted
- Page 12
RB Takes Early Lead In MmdSweepstakes
High Court thr ows out applications for judicial review
 At least 32 members of staff at the Ministry of Healthheadquarters have been put on forced leave to facilitateinvestigations into a fraud initially believed to have involvedthe sum of K10 billion at the Ministry.Many of them were subsequently interviewed by the police
who have conrmed recording “warn and caution statements”
from some of them. The suspended workers were barred from
entering the ofce premises-Ndeke House in Longacres- as
a security operation got underway. The affected workersare mainly from the Procurement, Internal Audit, Accounts,Planning and policy and Human Resources departments.The security crackdown followed closely the receipt of aninterim report on the suspected fraud by President
RupiahBanda
on May 26, 2009. Investigations into the suspected
32 Banned ss Investigation
into K10 Billion Fraud Intensifes
fraud intensied as May drew to a close after having beenrst disclosed May 13, by the Anti-Corruption Commission(ACC). The ACC disclosed that it had seized and restricted
property worth over K3billion from a onetime HumanResources manager at the Ministry of Health who at the time
was working in the same capacity at the Ministry of Local
Government and Housing.
The properties seized were suspected to have been obtained
using the K10 billion siphoned off the public budget. They
included an executive lodge in Roma township of Lusaka, a
house in Olympia Park, another lodge under construction inthat same area, a Hummer H3 vehicle, a BMW X5 vehicle,
two Mercedes Benz cars, two Lexus cars, a 30-tonne NissanTipper truck, a Mitsubishi Challenger vehicle, a Ford Ranger vehicle and a Mazda pickup van. The ACC did not name theofcial nor had they formally arrested him by that time. A week
Six provinces declare for Rupiah Banda as 2011 shapes up as a re-run of 2008
The next Presidential Election in Zambia is not until 2011. But already six out
of nine provincial committees of the ruling Movement for Multi-party Democracy(MMD) have rmly indicated that their nominee for party candidate in the 2011
Presidential election will be
President Rupiah Banda.
 There seems to be a growing consensus around that at least in the mainstream
MMD. The Southern province was rst to declare for Mr. Banda. Speaking inthe provincial capital, Livingstone when the president arrived for an ofcialengagement, the MMD provincial chairman, the lawyer 
Solomon Muzyamba
 
said the party in the province wanted Mr. Banda to be the “sole” MMD presidential
candidate in 2011 and that anyone else in the ruling party who aspired to thatposition should wait until 2016.
“The message is clear. Come 2011, you are the sole candidate for MMD president.
We do not want upstarts to disturb, to take us back to the drawing board. We wantto continue on the success of the past, from where you picked up, up to the logical
conclusion,” he said.The fat now seemed to be in the re! In rapid succession, four other provincialcommittees declared for President Banda. The MMD in Lusaka said there was
consensus that President Banda should be the party’s candidate in 2011 and that
the Lusaka committee would spearhead the campaign for his re-election.“We want Mr. Banda to continue working at improving the economy and wewill therefore spearhead the campaign for his re-election,” declared
CleophasChimembe
the provincial chairman. The Central province committee was next.“President Banda has demonstrated unmatched leadership skills and we aretherefore, condent that if hecontinues in ofce after 2011, he
will be able to turn around the
economy of the country,” said
Roy Mulenga
the provincialchairman.
Two other provincial committees-Eastern and North-western- also
announced they would back
Mr. Banda. Subsequently, the
Western province declared for Mr.Banda with the caveat that they
will lobby for the Vice-president to
be appointed from the province.
The Lusaka MMD committee
reiterated its support for PresidentBanda at a subsequent press
brieng on June 2, 2009. The
committee said he has done wellas head of state despite the manychallenges including an opposition
driven by “selsh motives and the
 
Executive Issues
Volume 12 - June 2009
 
Executive Issues
News
politics of insults and character assassination.” “In the midst of such insults and
insinuations leveled against him, he has not reacted in a negative way but insteadcontinued his agenda of developing the nation… [He] has shamed the prophets of 
doom by nding investors for Luanshya Copper Mines,” said Mr. Chimembe.
More than half the provinces are for Mr. Banda and he has won endorsements
from individuals as well including the Vice-President
George Kunda
, Labour andSocial Security Minister 
Austin Liato
and MMD Chief Parliamentary Whip
VernonMwaanga
. For his part, President Banda has said he will run. In response tothe Southern province chairman, he indicated that he will seek the ruling party’s
nomination at the party convention due next year. Going by these developmentsand the mood in the ruling party, it seems even at this early stage that he will be
the nominee though not necessarily without a challenger(s). These developmentsin the ruling party seemed to slam the door in the face of many “closet” or perhaps
fringe candidates within the ruling party. The message was that despite their ambitions, the nomination may not be within reach. That in fact may have been
the primary aim of the early endorsements-to deliver an early message to “non-starter” candidates and there is quite a sprinkling of them in the MMD.
In the last nomination in 2008 for instance, there were quite a number who
got one vote, theirs! But more poignantly, there are persistent reports of other 
candidates who by stealth are reported to be trying to inch or buy their way to the
nomination. They probably have been emasculated by now. For Zambia what thistrajectory of events does is set it up for a virtual re-run in 2011 of the October 30,2008 presidential by-election at least by candidates and perhaps in every other aspect as well! For, even as the Southern Province MMD chairman opened theoodgates, the man who narrowly lost to President Banda in the 2008 election,Patriotic Front (PF) President
Michael Sata
had
 
already indicated at a rally at
Senema near Mansa that he would be the candidate for president in 2011. The PFhas so far held no convention since formation and Mr.Sata has previously stood
without going through a convention or any kind of public or transparent party rank
and le nomination. It does seem therefore that by whatever mechanism the partyuses, he will be the party’s standard-bearer despite a whispering campaign in
some party circles against his candidature. He still seems secure enough to pull
off the nomination. He has, following the growing consolidation in the MMD, tried
to stir up trouble there without much outward success by saying that those in the
MMD who thought Mr. Banda would give way in 2011 were duped. But so far onlythe FDD President
Edith Nawakwi
is reported to have confessed to somethingof that nature.
Sata has also made the now ritual overtures for cooperation among oppositionparties through an electoral/political pact with the UPND. The UPND’s
HakaindeHichilema
who was the other candidate in 2008 has been increasingly combative
of late. He has since formed an alliance with the PF for 2011. But it is nearly
always like that with the opposition however such moves rarely bear any fruit.
Something of a re-run of the 2008 election would therefore appear to be in store.
Momentum towards the 2011 election is bound to increase when registration of 
voters begins later this year. Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Zambia(ECZ) Judge
Florence Mumba
has recently indicated that her organization is
due to start the registration later in the year and the Ministry of Home Affairs
has indicated that mobile issuance of National Registration Cards will commence
shortly. Perhaps that will be the only fundamental difference with 2008, there isbound to be a lot more voters in 2011.
RB Takes Early Lead In Mmd Sweepstakes
later, one
Henry Kapoko,
a Human Resources Manager at the Ministry of LocalGovernment and Housing led an application in the Lusaka High Court for judicialreview of the actions of the ACC. His application was for the court to declare “nulland void” the seizure of those properties by the ACC. The application sought thatthe action of the ACC to seize all the property belonging to the applicant and toinnocent third parties be declared “irrational and/or unreasonable.” Its thrust wasthat not all properties seized belonged to one person.The High Court turned down the application. The court seemed dissatised with
the applicant’s locus
standi 
in the matter and said the application could have
been better heard if the owners of the seized property had initiated the action
since they had a clearer interest in the matter. By then there were severalother developments around the issue. President Banda had already directed
the Secretary to the Cabinet as head of the civil service and law enforcementagencies to carry out forensic investigations to get to the truth and emphasizedthat he took no comfort in allegations of fraud in public institutions. “I want a fullreport on these allegations. We cannot condone acts of abuse of public funds,”he said. In a related development, Secretary to the Treasury
Likolo Ndalamei
 disclosed that government would this year introduce a single account from whichall payments would be made in order to stem recurrent misappropriation of public
fund and that an orientation workshop for controlling ofcers would be held in July.“Payments will be centralized and every ministry will have to provide informationon who should be paid and these payments will be done centrally,” he told thePublic Accounts Committee
The President received the interim report on the scam on the same day that heheld closed door meetings with donors, obviously on the same issue.
Investigations intensied. On May 29, the Lusaka High Court turneddown an application “to stay criminal investigations” against a principalPlanner at the Ministry of Health and her mother. They had a run-in with
From Page 1From Page 1
the Anti-Corruption Commission investigators who froze their personal accounts
with at K200 million, restricted the health planner from disposing of her residential
at, her government bonds valued at K368.3 million and restricted disposal of her shares in a number companies. They also seized a total of K55.5 million in various
currencies from that her house.
She was granted leave to apply for judicial review but criminal investigations were
not stayed. The applicants believed they were targeted because one of them hasa child with the main suspect
Kapoko.
 An interim audit by the Auditor-General’sofce put the total embezzlement at the Ministry at K27 billion. The former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry
Dr. Simon Miti
who is now at the Ministry
of Science, Technology and Vocational Training was interviewed by the policeand sent on leave. On June 2, the Lusaka High Court again dismissed threeapplications for judicial review in connection with the investigation. Shareholdersof the Best Lodge, a Lusaka businessman and resident had applied for judicialreview of the seizure of their properties. The same day, President Banda said that
he would not shield anybody from the investigation saying that he wanted the truthto come out and would not shield anybody. He said the investigations were too
serious to be trivialized or politicized because of the amounts involved.Subsequently, the main suspect
Henry Kapoko
, the Ministry of Health HumanResources Manager was formally arrested and charged with one count of obtaining money by false pretences in the sum of K1.9 billion. He denied the
charge and the matter was adjourned to June 17. His application for bail wascontested by the prosecution on the grounds that he had been illusive: “It took
10 days for the police to locate
Kapoko
and it is a pity that the defence are notaware of this. The investigating team went to his home in Woodlands but nobody
knew his whereabouts. Even his uncle expressed ignorance,” the prosecutor toldthe court and added that the arresting ofcer only traced him when he made a
telephone call to his best friend. Ruling was reserved to the next day.
32 Banned ss Investigation into K10 Billion
Fraud Intensifes
 
Executive Issues
Volume 12 - June 2009
 
Executive Issues
News
Few will want to negotiate with unions if their members do not seem torecognize the process.
May saw a rush of strikes in what seemed like a widening spiral of labour turmoil
in the civil service. Teachers, hospital staff and other unionized civil service
workers staged work stoppages to press for a speedy conclusion of pay
increase negotiations between government and public service unions. Unionized
government employees want a 25% salary increase across the board and not the
11% which for some reason they fear will be the nal settlement.
In addition, teachers want the payment of rural hardship allowances and liquidationof housing allowance arrears, some of which they say have been outstanding for 
up to six years! Health workers sound adamant about a K800, 000 increase inhousing allowance. Demanding a “sensible and realistic outcome” and apparentlyexasperated by delays in concluding negotiations on these demands, unionized
government employees led by teachers walked off the workplace in what they
said was an “ indenite strike.”Some said that the delay in concluding negotiations showed that “the governmentwas not ready to listen to the workers.” Assurances of good faith on the part of government by Labour and Social Security Minister 
Austin Liato
did nothing to
stem the spiral of “industrial action.” “We mean well,” Liato had said,”the process
is still on and I urge the labour leaders in the collective bargaining process to goto the table and conclude the negotiations. The process has not stalled and they
can only call for industrial action when the process has stalled.”His entreaties came shortly after the General-Secretary of the Zambia Congressof Trade Unions (ZCTU)
Roy Mwaba
had said the ZCTU would support industrial
action if negotiations were not concluded by May 31, 2009 and warned of a
nation-wide strike. But before even then civil servants in Livingstone and Monze;teachers in Luwingu, Lufwanyama and the Copperbelt walked out together withnurses and paramedics from the Ndola and Kitwe Central hospitals. The strike
spread quickly and so also did the effects.
The Ndola Central Hospital for instance, had to discharge some patients. Student
nurses and senior staff were the only staff on duty. There was a widespreaddisruption of classes as teachers were not available to teach in various and
increasing parts of the country. The exception came May 27, when the ZambiaUnion of Financial Institutions and Allied Workers (ZUFIAW) formally declareda dispute with Finance Bank Zambia over their deadlocked salary negotiations.General Secretary
Joyce Nonde-Simukoko
urged members to remain calm asthe parties moved to the next stage conciliation as required by law.
That was a far cry from the situation elsewhere. In Livingstone, union leaderscondemned the Southern Province Permanent Secretary
Darius Hakayobe
and
Monze District Commissioner 
Joyce Nondo
for saying that the work stoppagewas illegal and those participating risked disciplinary action. They said thiswas intimidation but that it would not work. Unless there was closure on thenegotiations, work stoppage seemed set to spread after May 31.But there were
indications that agreement was imminent. Whether the “nal settlement” will be
acceptable is another matter. Among teachers, it seems that some of them atleast were paid hardship allowances when they were not entitled to. The Ministrywould appear to be recovering from salaries and that has caused quite some
anger. These deductions have been described as “illegal and inhuman.”So, there
will continuing anger there. The workers would appear to be in a militant moodand will not stand for interminable negotiations. Industrial action when legitimateis one way to putting pressure.
Legitimate that is, when it is resorted to in line with the provisions of the Industrial
Relations Act. But increasingly and in this case those provisions seem to count for nothing. In fact, the pattern of strikes has tended to call into question the whole
system of “free bargaining” between unions and employers. Their basic premiseis that the negotiating teams have the condence, support and mandate of their 
principals. But the nature of the strikes tends to suggest that this may not be so.
Strikes have occurred and continue to occur while negotiations are underway andon a number of times over demands that are not on the table-new ones! It is also
the case that strikes have occurred over matters that have already been agreed
to. The strike by teachers over non-payment of rural “hardship” allowances and
arrears on housing allowances is a case in point.
The strike had festered for some time. By the end of the rst school term in April,
there was a rush of strike action by teachers in various parts of the country. Thesecond term opened to a widening strike over basically the same issues. Butnot long after the 2009 budget was approved, the treasury in rapid succession
disbursed funds in at least two tranches to address the issue. Subsequent
discussions between the government and unions produced an undertaking bygovernment to clear the outstanding K42 billion in housing allowance arrears by August 2009.
The Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) said subsequently that it was
working with the Ministry of Education to ensure that all outstanding arrears someof which it said were from six years ago, were paid as soon as possible and thatit had been agreed that K15 billion would be disbursed monthly until August when
the arrears would be cleared. Even so, sporadic strikes and go-slow resolutionsby teachers in various parts of the country continued. In Choma, a meeting of 
teachers held the same day as the union attempted to clear the air over the issue
resolved on a go-slow and called for a 25% salary increment and not 11%.
What these walkouts do ultimately is raise questions about trade unions. Thereseems to be a widening gulf between the membership and leadership. Hencewhile the leadership is still negotiating members may walk out on strike over the subject of the negotiations and it is not always clear what exactly is being
negotiated because there are supplementary demands! This tends to reduce thecredibility of union negotiators. For, the only reason to sit down with them is in
the spirit that their position will have come from their membership and decisionswill permeate to the membership. But in this case, union leaders were being cast
as “sell-outs” for having met with President Rupiah Banda at Hippo Lodge in theKafue National Park.If trade unions do not seem to enjoy the support and condence of the membership,
then the bottom will have fallen off the whole framework of industrial relations.Both employers and trade unions will need to go over this. Members must actin support of the trade union leadership and not pull it down by taking unilateral
action. At the same time employers must realize that solutions must be found ingood time. Organized free bargaining must be preserved and enhanced for the
sake of industrial harmony.
Divided They Stand:The Creeping Public Service Strike
Patients need to know what it will cost before travelling there
The Zambian Mission in South Africa has recently warned self-sponsored patients
for treatment in that country that medical treatment there is expensive. Theyshould therefore make sure that they ascertain the cost of it before travelling or risk being discharged before medication is complete.The warning came in the wake of a reported increasing number of Zambians whotravel for medical treatment but end up not completing treatment because of ashortage of money to cover the complete course.
“Medical treatment in South Africa is very expensive,” said the statement.
It advised would be patients to ascertain the cost before embarkingon the trip. It was pointless to spend so much on travel and medicalbills only to run out of money and thereby be unable to completetreatment.
 ACHTUNG-SA Treatmentnot Cheap
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