{"id":57101,"date":"2024-01-31T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2024-01-31T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/?p=57101"},"modified":"2024-01-31T08:38:38","modified_gmt":"2024-01-31T08:38:38","slug":"cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls","title":{"rendered":"Cabinet ministers; why don\u2019t you pick up our calls?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. <\/strong><\/span>One of the Achilles heels of some of our leaders in the current New Dawn Administration is their failure to pick up calls from ordinary citizens or indeed the rank and file within the party! President Hichilema is in fact on record castigating his ministers and other senior government officials for not picking up calls from ordinary citizens. Every time you try to call some of these officials, their mobile phones go unanswered; and when you decide to pay them a visit at their offices, they hide behind their secretaries on the pretext that they\u2019re very busy!<\/p>\n

Let those who looted the treasury in the previous regime who still have \u201ctusaka twandalama\u201d hidden in their houses and on their farms try to call them with some bogus business proposals, you\u2019ll see how their eyes will instantly be transformed and glow with excitement!<\/p>\n

Imwe ba Cabinet Minister, ba Permanent Secretaries naimwe ba District Commissioner; it\u2019s not always that whenever \u2018ba kabusu\u2019 call you, they want to ask for ka \u201csumfing\u201d…..learn to pick up our calls, please! Sometimes we want to share vital Intel with you or bring you up to speed with issues that may require your urgent attention. Kudos to a few exceptions such as mama Doreen Mwamba, the Minister of Community Development & Social Welfare, Ministry of Information Permanent Secretary, the legendary Thabo Kawana and indeed Messrs Christopher Mundia and Levy Ngoma, the Legal and Political aides to the President, respectively. They\u2019ll easily pick up their calls or promptly get back to you in case of missed calls.<\/p>\n

As it is not our nature to speak from without, we shall share a few practical examples. We shall however spare the concerned leaders any embarassment by not mentioning any names.<\/p>\n

One day, some rural country folks working at our neighbour\u2019s farm who is building a double storied structure approached us with complaints that their boss, a youngish man of Asian origin, was paying them slave wages and failing to provide them the necessary personal protective equipment such as hard hats and safety boots. And whenever they complain, he\u2019d go ballistic and call them names…….baboons and monkeys for that matter!<\/p>\n

Our immediate reaction was to confront the man and punch him right on his nose, but common sense obviously prevailed and we decided otherwise. We tried to get hold of the concerned government officials to convey our grievances but they kept ignoring our calls. When we finally called on one official, he promised to pay the \u201cinvestor\u201d a surprise visit in the company of labour officers and a ZNBC news crew. But lo and behold……the Asian man continues to abuse his workers with impunity to this day!<\/p>\n

Before the Senseli mine disaster in Chingola, we raised the \u201calarm\u201d regarding street kids being used in such hazardous operations. Evidence is readily available on social media and of course Zambia National Broadcasting Services Corporation archives as we had given them an interview.<\/p>\n

Of course, we took a step further and tried to engage one or two government officials to alert them on what was obtaining at the said mining site and yet no one cared to listen. As fate would have it, tragedy struck resulting in catastrophic proportions. There\u2019s a possibility some of the street kids got buried in those tunnels as the so-called Jerabos used to coerce them to go and work there as well.<\/p>\n

In their quest to possibly catch-up with Patriotic Front cadres in terms of accumulation of massive wealth, some UPND cadres and party officials have \u201cinvaded\u201d some game reserves in their droves and are busy mining copper and other precious minerals without following any laid down procedures. This is totally wrong! We didn\u2019t get rid of PF Mafias to replace them with another bunch of criminals!<\/p>\n

On several occasions, we\u2019ve tried to bring such criminalities to the attention of relevant authorities but as usual, our calls have remained unanswered!<\/p>\n

We can prepare a whole catalogue about how our leaders have become so \u201cunreachable\u201d but we won\u2019t bore you with such nitty gritties. In the few years that UPND has been in power, it has obviously recorded a number of successes but there\u2019s still some more work yet to be done. However, immediately the leadership begins \u201cinsulating\u201d itself from the ordinary masses, it becomes impossible to appreciate what is obtaining \u201cpa ground\u201d and before you know it, the ground would have long shifted far away from you. These are our prophetic words.<\/p>\n

Ba Minister, ba Permanent Secretary naimwe ba District Commissioner, start picking up our calls! Start attending to the needs of our people……or you\u2019re waiting for 2026?<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zambia. One of the Achilles heels of some of our leaders in the current New Dawn Administration is their failure to pick up calls from ordinary citizens or indeed the rank and file within the party! President Hichilema is in fact on record castigating his ministers and other senior government officials for not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":57100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12,248],"tags":[234,235,233],"class_list":["post-57101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","category-to-homepage","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-zambia","tag-zambia"],"yoast_head":"\nCabinet ministers; why don\u2019t you pick up our calls? - Zambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"One of the Achilles heels of some of our leaders in the current New Dawn Administration is their failure to pick up call ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cabinet ministers; why don\u2019t you pick up our calls?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the Achilles heels of some of our leaders in the current New Dawn Administration is their failure to pick up call ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Zambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-01-31T21:48:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/01\/sm_1706677639.842153.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"533\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Cabinet ministers; why don\u2019t you pick up our calls?\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-01-31T21:48:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\"},\"wordCount\":806,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zambia\/sites\/35\/2024\/01\/sm_1706677639.842153.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Zambia\",\"Zambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\",\"to-homepage\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zambia\/all-news\/cabinet-ministers-why-dont-you-pick-up-our-calls\",\"name\":\"Cabinet ministers; why don\u2019t you pick up our calls? 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