HOSPITALS ON WHEELS

By Gershom Ndhlovu

  

For anyone who has been to Zambia’s rural areas, whether in Western Province or Eastern Province, North-Western Province or Southern Province, the concept of mobile hospitals does not make sense at all. People living in those areas have for many years been served by the existing infrastructure there which needs a lot in terms of equipment, drugs and, crucially, personnel.

As someone who has been to outlying hospitals such as Sichili Mission Hospital in Sesheke, Luampa Mission Hospital in Kaoma, Chilonga Mission Hospital in Mpika, Chitambo Mission Hospital in Serenje and government-run hospitals such as Nyimba and Lundazi, I have seen for myself how the people running these institutions have tried to do their best with limited resources.

The challenges that these hospitals face range from the lack of a constant supply of electricity, to lack of necessary laboratory equipment if they have laboratories in the first place, and even communication equipment for seeking assistance in case of an evacuation which in itself is a far cry.

Forlorn is written on the faces of not only the patients that seek medical services from these hospitals, but also on the faces of the members of staff who are equally helpless in the circumstances.

Granted, people cover long distances to go to these hospitals, but certainly, there is no guarantee that the mobile hospitals will cover every village along the way, and if they will do, what will they do with the cases that need hospitalisation? Will there be beds on which the patients will be dragged all over the place? These are just some of the questions that need answers.

Most of the hospitals in the rural areas are run by missionaries and as such they are kept going, thankfully, by their faith and the support from mother churches in their countries of origin where support is also dwindling with declining church attendance. If these were local doctors and nurses, they would have left long ago to seek greener pastures either in urban areas or foreign countries.

Instead of spending US$53 million on mobile hospitals which would obviously be in form of containers, government would do well to spend this money on existing infrastructure and putting up new hospitals where they do not exist. Who can imagine that Chongwe residents still have to go to the UTH, over 50 km away, for some services?

Government could even buy equipment for which politicians are sent to South Africa when they are ill but which the majority of the people in Mwinilunga, Gwembe and Kaputa come nowhere near to. Ironically, the rural hospitals are even shunned by District Administrators who would rather be treated in bigger and better hospitals!

Practically speaking, these mobile hospitals say in the case of Central Province, will probably not reach Ching’ombe in Mkushi or Ngabwe in Kapiri Mposhi because of the poor road network to these parts. It is no use parking at Mkushi boma or Kapiri Mposhi town centre and asking the ailing to visit these hospitals. The same is true for outlying areas such as Kazembe in Lundazi, Chiawa in Lusaka Province and Mumbezhi in North-Western Province.

I am not a medical person, but I am sure that the dynamics of diseases in Zambia are very different from those in China. Whereas malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS are some of the common afflictions in Zambia most of which require hospitalisation at some point, the Chinese probably suffer from different ailments altogether for which a one off appointment with the doctor is enough. In other words, the Chinese are trying to sell Zambia snake oil in terms of these hospitals knowing fully well that they will not work.

In the first couple of years, these hospitals on wheels will be in spick and span condition, and everyone, most probably the Chinese medical crew manning them, will be enthusiastic as funding from the US$53 million will still be flowing, but in the third year when funding dries up, there will be no fuel, no tyres, the engines will need servicing, and then, kaput.

There will no longer be subsistence allowances, and staff will start selling off the on-board equipment and so on and so forth. But even grimmer, Zambians for generations to come, will be saddled with a huge debt which they will be struggling to pay back to the Chinese government.

This is no rocket science, it is simple common sense.

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The other week I could not believe what I read about Works and Supply Minister Mike Mulongoti saying democracy in Zambia had been hijacked by some “strange journalists” and non-governmental organisations.

Not to mention the fact that Mulongoti has no constituency apart from the fact that he was elected by about 5,000 MMD members at the party convention as chairman for elections and subsequently nominated by the late President Mwanawasa and later President Banda, he certainly missed his secondary school Civics lessons on democracy.

His attempt to quote Abraham Lincoln’s government of the people, for the people by the people speech was quite clearly misplaced.

The following is the quote from the Gettysburg speech “[We must] be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the Earth.”

On the contrary, Mulongoti wants to curtail the freedom that this great man envisaged for America and the rest of the free world. He wants to take us back to the feudal and monarchical days where only kings and their appointees had any say in matters of governance.

Please, Sir, revisit your Civics note books, if you still have them, for they may help you understand democracy and what it entails. You just have to learn to live with the “strange journalists” and NGOs.

*The format of the blog will soon be changing because the newspaper for which the column was written has been liquidated by its owners, the Zambia Episcopal Conference and the Christian Council of Zambia. I wish to thank the readers who keenly followed the column, and the editors with whom I worked for the last three years when every week, save for one when I did not have an internet connection because of moving house, I unfailingly submitted the column. I thank particularly Mulenga Chomba who initiated the column, Brenda Zulu and Simon Mwanza, both of whom continued to have faith in me. Hats off and good wishes for the future, mates.

ANONYMOUS DOCUMENTS

By Gershom Ndhlovu

Recently I have received anonymous documents in my e-mail box but the latest one entitled the Dora Siliya Affair: The Parallel Government beats them all. What can be deduced from these documents is that whoever writes them is either well connected to government or was once in government and still has access to information.

One of the earlier documents tore apart Chief Justice Ernest Sakala particularly his attempt to have some magistrates hearing plunder cases, promoted to High Court judges and how the Law Association of Zambia blocked him because most of them did not meet the criteria for appointment and also how someone keeps a “little” secret about his private life.

Says the latest anonymous circular: “Dora Siliya has fallen. One strong pillar that stood against an empire is felled, succumbing to the chain saw of the evil empire. Another strong pillar in George Kunda is being chipped away.

“Justice Dennis Chirwa sealed Dora’s fate when his Tribunal made recommendations that clearly appear to be outside the provisions of the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct. Dora faced specific charges and the tribunal findings were expected to restrict itself [sic] to the charges. She was cleared of all charges relating to the Parliamentary and Ministerial Code of Conduct.

“Yet, she was found liable of breaching Article 54 (3) of the Republican Constitution! Although this opinion rendered appeared mundane and was not a subject or scope of the tribunal, it proved to be the most damaging.

“Further, their inclusion of the Republican President, Rupiah Banda, who was not part of the proceedings, roping him with threatening words, was strange.

“The report included a mischievous fact stating that: ‘’If a sitting President breaches the Constitution, he is liable to impeachment under Article 37’’!

“Was the President the matter of this tribunal?”

The document goes on to say Dora must be remembering a threatening call she received just before elections last October from a named journalist in which she was allegedly threatened that her life would be turned upside down and warned her that her life including her ‘social life’ would be a focus of public glare!

The document states: “Dora dared the heart of an Evil Empire. And now she has paid a high price. And with Dora caving in, the Empire is encouraged that their worst nightmare in George Kunda could also be pressured to resign so that Rupiah Banda remains bare, and bare enough to manipulate or hound out!”

The document concludes: “The empire that has risen against Rupiah Banda is tenacious and relentless one. It will continue to derail his development agenda to the detriment of the country.

“Banda should deal with their crimes decisively since this is the only reason they have mounted a war against him and his government. This clique is so desperate that it is only preoccupied with activities such as an impeachment motion against him. Their activities that [sic] are designed to portray him as a failure, as corrupt and as a political liability to Zambia when not.

“They are so afraid of exposure and they fear that the law is slowly catching up with them and against their activities that they have employed an old age methods from Sun Tzu’s Art of War.

“Sun Tzu is traditionally believed to have penned in 480 BC, the Chinese classic book used by officers in the Military called The Art of War. The book defines various military strategies that are now used constantly by modern politicians and activists.

“Politicians, business managers and other activists now use the Art of War to manage political conflicts and deploy warfare tactics and strategies in order to subdue an ‘enemy’’ in business, public administration.”

The document rumbles on and on. My argument however is that if the authorities know or knew or about the scheming that went on involving the so-called Evil Empire, they could have moved in much, much earlier. But the problem is that not a lot of people in government itself have clean hands and let matters get to the current state of affairs.

Today in Zambia people go into government, or have dealings with it, not for the service of the majority of the citizens, but rather for what they can get out of it for themselves and their families.

What people such as the authors of these documents and their principals should be doing is to examine forests in their own eyes before they point at logs in other people’s eyes. Look at how many people have lost their livelihoods since 1991 at the advent of privatisation, all because of the selfishness of the leaders Zambians have entrusted with their affairs in the last couple of decades.

Zambians must wake up from their slumber and realise that they have the power to put in clean governments rather than being used as pawns in dangerous political and economic chess games that only benefit a few.

……

As President Banda himself noted on swearing in new Zambia Police Service commissioner Graphael Musamba, the man has always been a sensible policeman.

I remember him as Emmasdale Police station officer-in-charge in the 1990s when I would go there as a reporter on the Sunday Mail in the company of then police service spokesman Peter Chingaipe and he would give us stories that most often turned out to be lead stories.

Musamba, with his colleagues such as Phineas Hindamu, was always cool headed I am not surprised he has risen to the higher echelons of the police service. Hopefully he will probably breathe some fresh air in the police which has slowly been drifting back to a force in the last few years.

If Musamba could treat President Banda humanely when he was detained as a political prisoner then (he had no idea that the man he was dealing with would be president one day), it is just logical that the police service treats all politicians and political functions equally and reasonably rather than with cadre tendencies that some senior policemen exhibit.

NCC TAKING AWAY PEOPLE’S RIGHTS

By Gershom Ndhlovu

If the National Constitution Conference (NCC) recommendation that the Vice President should automatically take over the presidency in the event that the incumbent vacates office due to death or incapacity is included in the new constitution, it will mean Zambians losing one existing right and potentially denying them another one.

Firstly, the NCC not recommended that the Vice President be made running mate of the president in an election means that people will be denied the right to elect the vice president by the larger Zambian constituency rather than by a smaller constituency unit. Such a person taking over the presidency would do so without the people’s general mandate.

Secondly, the automatic assumption of the presidency by the Vice President without a by-election has taken away the right of the people to decide who takes over as the current constitution guarantees.

Of course, Zambia has experienced a sad episode of the demise of a sitting president and a by-election, and I am sure that the recommendation comes as a result of that. I am sure that what many well meaning Zambians doubt is whether there is any justification, apart from the costs which are necessary in a democracy, for that fundamental change in the constitution. But coupled with that, is the arrogance with which the politicians from the ruling party are going about it.

What would be the most ideal situation is that such a person is scrutinised by the general Zambian electorate in the first place but, as I have stated above, would have just been elected in one corner of the country or in a worst case scenario, just nominated as Member of Parliament and appointed vice president.

Not taking away anything from him, but President Rupiah Banda is himself a case in point. He was just nominated by the late President Levy Mwanawasa in 2006 and today he has taken occupancy of State House through that fluke appointment less than three years ago.

The NCC delegates should have also looked at the history of instability in the office of the vice president. In the last 17 or so years of the MMD in power, not less than seven people have occupied that office starting from Levy Mwanawasa himself in 1991 to George Kunda today. In between there have been people like Godfrey Miyanda, the late Christon Tembo, Enoch Kavindele, Nevers Mumba, Lupando Mwape and Rupiah Banda himself in that order.

Simply put, there is no security of tenure in the office of the vice president because whoever occupies it, does so at the pleasure of the president who is the appointing authority and can be removed at any time. For this reason, the president could appoint a weak person who would not be inclined to challenge him for any reason, including wrong decisions, for him to continue enjoying the comfort of Government House and other facilities and benefits attached to it.

It appears to me that the MMD members on the NCC and their proxies are not thinking through some of the recommendations they are passing. The motivation is clearly to entrench the MMD in power given the control that the ruling party has on the Electoral Commission of Zambia, an organisation which lacks the full confidence of the people.

The danger is that whoever will come in power after President Banda, especially if it he or she will come from the opposition, will change the constitution. It will be a cycle repeated over and over and it is doubtful if we will ever come up with one that will stand the so-called test of time.

There is equally no guarantee that even an MMD president will not change the constitution. Zambians know that when President Mwanawasa took over from Chiluba, he ripped the Chiluba constitution which is in the process of being re-written. We all thought that this should have been the opportunity to put in a good document especially that the constitution making process costs money which could be better used in other areas of development.

Sadly, Zambians are once more being taken for a ride by the very people they put in office by drafting a constitution that takes away their fundamental rights. One would have hoped that Vice President George Kunda, who is also justice minister, should have done a better job considering that he was once president of that luminous legal body, the Law Association of Zambia.

Equally sad is the fact that most of the people sitting on the NCC are just interested in the huge allowances they are earning when everyone else faces the spectre of joblessness as a result of the global economic meltdown.

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So President Rupiah Banda knows it when he is being told lies by the people who have access to him? Yes Sir, this type of flotsam has spoiled lives of many honourable men and women of our beautiful country who have wrongly being reported to heads of state who have acted on the information based on lies.

People have lost businesses, professions, jobs, and unfortunate ones, even their lives because of such liars.

The people who tell lies to presidents have probably wanted to win favours for themselves or have done so merely out of jealous and malice. A good President would indeed verify this information through the professional system and if needs be, ask the people so maligned for their side of the story.

Many a time, these lies would be disproved and it would be appropriate if the liars were exposed right there and then, and if needs be, even punished. What is sad in the Zambian case is that even people who have held ministerial positions have done that to settle simple scores with ordinary citizens.

Zambia needs a lot of healing from this type of people and other political misfits who have gotten to the top through deceit, backstabbing and utter lies. And there is no better place from where to start this process than from the President himself.