By Staff Reporter
Former Health minister Angela Cifire says the appointments in the UPND administration are heavily skewed towards Southern, Western, North-Western and parts of Central provinces, which says must not be the case as Zambians stood together to reject tribalism in 2021.
Speaking with Daily Revelation over what many view as tribal appointments into government positions that are heavily skewed towards Southern, Western, North Western and parts of Central province, despite President Hichilema having received significant votes even in areas where he lost, with Eastern Province producing a split decision (51 percent for president Edgar Lungu and 49 percent for President Hakainde Hichilema), Cifire said appointments in government must be given in recognition that the 2021 general elections was a 10-province programme and not having a situation where the presidency is now being captured in terms “uyu wesu or uyu nguwezu.”
Cifire, who campaigned with the UPND to remove the PF from office, said President Hichilema has been in office long enough now to examine the situation and assess what people are talking.
She said if the people were talking about it, it means that there was an issue which she said should be examined and improved upon in keeping with the President’s promise that he would unite the nation he accused the PF of dividing.
Cifire said “let it be done” with a reminder that there is a problem at hand which needs to be resolved.
“I think we can’t dispute the fact that we have seen this skewed appointments. I can call it and yes, we need to be able to, that’s why I am saying that we need to make an improvement,” Cifire said. “You see when this change came about, it came about first because Zambians now said to hell with the notion of tribalism. We want change irrespective of where this presidency was going to come from. So it was a united front and therefore with that united front we should have been able recognize that okay, fine this was not about one region that decided that that we needed to change this.
“This was a question of Zambians saying enough is enough, we want change and we are going to get a person who we think is going to provide a solution to the issues that we think we are having now. And therefore in terms of giving back to the people it should be given back to the people recognizing that it’s a 10 province programme and not now people trying to capture the presidency in terms of uyu wesu or uyu nguwezu or whatever it is. It should be about a president for all.”
Cifire said she was glad that the President has taken a couple of trips to Eastern province, saying she hoped it was an indication that he must be thinking that there is something amiss in the province.
She said she hoped the President had settled enough to rethink and reorganize and make things better from the time after the elections, and that the fact that everybody has talked about it especially on developmental issues like the Chadiza, Vubwi roads.
“That should give him enough time to sit back and think ‘okay, how do I get this Eastern province support pay back?’” Cifire said.
She said the fact that Eastern Province was an agricultural based area explained the very reason why the province needed good roads into the Great East road as the common carrier, saying at one point there was the issue of one minister saying that the roads were not commercially viable, but argued that Eastern province is actually commercially viable.
Talking about the chaotic distribution of farming inputs for this farming season, Cifire said apart from the chaos, she prayed that the good rains will work some miracle that will give people the produce that should last them, but that if that did not happen she hoped that lessons have been learnt that in the coming season there should be a movement from the “trial and error” experienced.
Socialist Party (SP) leader Dr Fred M’membe recently said that critics are asking if what they are seeing is equal to what they were promised, mentioning the various positions including that of President (Tonga), Vice-President (Bemba married to a Lozi), Speaker (Lozi), Chief Justice (Lenje), Acting President of the Constitutional Court (Lozi), Attorney General (Lenje), Solicitor General (Tonga), Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission (Lozi), Chairman of the Judicial Complaints Commission (Tonga), Commissioner of Lands (Tonga), Chief Legal Advisor to the President (Lozi), Minister of Justice (Tonga). Dr M’membe further stated that appointments to key ministries that can’t easily be done away with flowed in the same direction including Home Affairs (Tonga), Local Government (Tonga), Education (Tonga), Tourism (Tonga), Justice (Tonga), Foreign Affairs (Lenje), Health (Soli), Defence (Luvale), Infrastructure (Lozi), Finance (Lozi), Lands (Lunda), Governor of the Bank of Zambia (Tonga).
In the Defence Forces, Zambia Army Commander (Lozi), Zambia Air Force (Kaonde), ZNS Commandant (Luvale), Inspector General of Police (Kaonde), Director General of Intelligence (Lozi), Commissioner of Correctional Services (Tonga), Chief Immigration Officer (Lozi), FRA Board Chairman (Tonga).
At the Electoral Commission of Zambia (ECZ), chairperson (Lozi), vice-chairperson (Mambwe), and that the three other commissioners are Tonga, Lozi and Lunda.
