TOP SECRET TOILET PAPER

By Gershom Ndhlovu

Vice-President George Kunda recently warned, through parliament, that civil servants who allegedly leak confidential government information would not be protected.

“It is unfortunate,” said Kunda, “that these same whistle blowers only leak information that people want to hear and they suppress the explanation. These types of whistle-blowers will not be protected.”

Having had worked in the civil service in my early years of post-graduation from the University of Zambia, I learnt, sooner rather than later, that in the civil service, any document, even a humorous doodled note passing between two officers, could simply be classified with the “confidential”, “secret” or “top secret” stamps that were readily available to any officer of my rank at the time.

If any officer wanted, he or she could classify toilet tissue with a mere stamp and from a scenario as obtains in government now, any document in government offices could be classified particularly using the maxim common in intelligence circles—“the need to know” principle. Those who have no need to know about certain things would be kept in the dark, more so the public.

As such, documents with alleged criminal intent such as the nation has recently been treated to through the private media such as the controversial valuation of Zamtel by RP Capital, the procurement of radars for National Airports Corporation both of which are now subject of a tribunal, and the importation of GMO maize and instructions by a top MMD official to a permanent secretary at the home affairs home affairs ministry to pay suppliers of some doubtful services to government, can simply be classified and put away from the prying public eye while unscrupulous figures fatten their bank accounts with taxpayers funds.

Those who, out of patriotism, take it upon themselves to expose these nefarious activities, risk going to jail for 25 years under the Official Secrets Act and other legal gibberish especially if they signed what then, if at all it has changed, was Form CS1, the very first document a civil servant signed upon employment.

It would appear as if the MMD has found a loophole, and certainly a nadir, in the civil service by appointing cut-and-dried party cadres as district commissioners, deputy permanent secretaries, permanent secretaries and diplomats, all who are controlling officers in their own right who can do their party’s bidding in terms of channeling public funds to the party.

How else have these officers been surviving the chop—even jail—when year in and year out, their ministries, departments, districts and diplomatic missions have been exposed by the Auditor General for abuse of public funds? Some permanent secretaries even have had difficulties explaining their financial operations before the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee and they have walked out unscathed, laughing and personally wealthier.

Is it any wonder then that the MMD government has been dragging its feet in the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill which has procrastinated for close to a decade now through which the media and the public could be at liberty to ask public bodies for release of any information in their custody, for public or private consumption?

If and when this law is passed, only Cabinet Minutes and matters of genuine defence and security would be protected from disclosure and there would be no illegality for obtaining and passing information under the ambit of the Freedom of Information law.

The absence of the Freedom of Information Act demands for innovation among journalists to dig information in what has universally come to be known as investigative journalism, a genre of journalism which came to be associated with two journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who forced the resignation of US president Richard Nixon over the Watergate Scandal in 1974.

In Zambia, the only newspaper that practices a semblance of investigative journalism is the Post whose exposes led to the indictment of the country’s second republican president Frederick Chiluba over allegations dubbed the plunder of national resources which has had the domino effect of court appearances and jailing of former and serving senior government and military officials for corruption-related cases.

As reggae maestro Bob Marley sang in one of his songs “you never miss the water until the well runs dry,” most Zambians miss the country’s third republican president, the late Levy Mwanawasa who made it possible to bring to book some of the most powerful people in the country who plundered with impunity the national treasury between 1991 and 2001 and beyond. Whether the subsequent leaders will tread that path in fighting the scourge is a matter of doubt considering the way things are going in the country. They themselves may tread the path to the courts of law once they are no longer in power.

….

Reading between the lines of what President Rupiah Banda said recently that there was no corruption in his government because donors in the country have not mentioned it, one sees that the man will only acknowledge the problem if external voices say so.

From Banda’s point view, it is either he is being economical with the truth or the donors themselves are complicit in the corruption cancer eating away at the very core of our country’s socio-economic fabric.

Readers will recall the knee-jerk reaction of government officials in the last 18 years who always brings up the argument that foreign diplomats are not supposed to meddle in the affairs of the country they are accredited to.

We are lectured about how these diplomats are supposed to use so-called diplomatic channels to voice concern about ills going on in a country of their service.

"It is perilous to assume we are unintelligent. We are not going to accept the insidious wiles of foreign influence. We might be a poor country. We may have made mistakes, but we are a free and sovereign nation entitled to our opinions and our own domestic policies. We will do what is in our interest and not that of another nation or a multinational company,” a former minister was quoted reacting to former French ambassador to Zambia, Francis Saudubray’s criticism of the Zambian government in 2005.

STARVING THE NATION FOR K2 BILLION

By Gershom Ndhlovu

 

Surely, the Zambian government through the Food Reserve Agency pawned the lives of its citizens for K2 billion, yes K2 billion—not US$2 billion—profit it made by exporting maize to neighbouring countries between 2006 and 2008. Surely, a local miller or two would have been able to buy grain for local consumption at that amount.

And because of this ill-advised decision, Zambians were briefly subjected to the possibility of consuming genetically modified organisms (GMO) maize, but thanks to some eagle-eyed citizens who exposed the scam although President Rupiah Banda tried to soothe the uncomfortable situation his government found itself in by saying the nation should re-open the GMO debate.

I do not know what happened to the wisdom of those we entrust to superintend over our national affairs has evaporated to, if they had wisdom in the first place, because even the bible which they claim to follow when it suits them, says that Pharaoh through Joseph, kept grain for up to seven years as buffer for the lean years ahead.

Even the United States only gets rid of its grain after seven years which is later donated to food deficit countries, most of which, like Zambia, mismanage their own food reserves.

But again, when you look at the maize silos at former NAMBOARD depots in Kitwe, Ndola, Chambishi, Kabwe, Lusaka and Monze, these are not only in a state of disrepair, they are probably empty and the rats that accompany the presence of maize may have migrated to the countries where the maize was sold to.

When the FRA replaced NAMBOARD otherwise known as National Agriculture Marketing Board, the nation was told that the new agency would be responsible for the management of strategic food reserves. We were not told that it would be involved in the business of exporting maize.

Ideally, the FRA would mop up maize that, year in year out, lies uncollected in agricultural areas such as Kalumwange in Kaoma, in Kashinakaji in Kabompo, in Chama and other areas. But these are only peasant farmers and yet the commercial and emergent farmers also cannot have their maize bought by the FRA which still prefers to import maize at a higher cost than they would normally pay to the local producers.

Only a few weeks ago, the nation was treated to yet another maize circus when government announced that it was in the process of importing 100,000 tonnes of maize and a farmers group said its members had maize around the quantities that government was about to import. One Brian Chituwo as minister responsible for agriculture swore that the farmers were not telling the truth and the farmers insisted government was not being sincere on the issue.

It is actually ironical that the FRA should export maize in the middle of the year and six months later the nation should experience a severe maize shortage which would lead government to “desperation” to the extent of buying GMO maize abroad.

The uncertainty with which the FRA handles local maize procurements not only leaves peasant farmers vulnerable to unscrupulous traders who exchange maize for useless items like “salaula” and “Dambo” soap which they would otherwise buy themselves if the government agency bought the maize from them, it also leaves those living in border areas to sell their maize in neighbouring countries. This in turn reduces people to depend on what the Tongas call “chiholehole” otherwise knows as relief maize after selling their produce to these brief-case businessmen.

President Banda, having had been chief executive officer of NAMBOARD, should know the dynamics of maize marketing and, if needs be, change laws and policies of grain management for Zambia to avoid going through the farcical food crises and shortages that continue ravaging citizens annually.

Since its inception in the early 1990s, it is clear that the FRA has failed in its mandate and it is time we tried something else if only to make food available on our tables affordably and all year round rather than the casino situation when one does not know if he will find a bag of mealie meal affordably at that.

….

A few days ago, I read a story of deputy transport and communications minister Mubika Mubika ticking off opposition Monze MP Jack Mwiimbu who had criticised the Lusaka International Airport. Mubika’s response was that Lusaka International Airport (LIA) is one of the best in Africa.

I thought my failing eye-sight had deceived me and had to send for my spectacles to read it all over again. If, in deed, Mubika can describe LIA as one of the best airports in Africa, it explains why a lot of infrastructure in the country is in a shoddy state, either just constructed or through neglect. We, as Zambians, have come to accept mediocrity as a part of life and Mubika’s position on LIA is just that, accepting mediocrity.

I have been to quite a few airports in Africa, ranging from Lubumbashi airport in Congo DRC—and Kinshasa’s N’djili—to Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and I have seen the best and the worst. In my view, Lusaka is no where near the best.

There is a lot that needs to be done at LIA for it to approach the levels of airports such as Bole which has been built with the future in mind and at the moment only 30 per cent of its capacity is being utilized. I doubt very much if Lusaka International Airport can even handle two international departures simultaneously.

Disembarking at LIA is always an anti-climax of a flight from abroad, landing to a dusty airport, back to staff clearly in ennui and run-down infrastructure.

Come on Bwana Mubika, take a quick trip to Harare International Airport and see for yourself what a good airport should be because I am sure even the severe economic throes that country is experiencing, have not taken the shine out of the airport.

Lusaka International Airport is only better than Lubumbashi airport which has seen better days, no more, no less.