By Patson Chilemba
Foreign Affairs minister Stanley Kakubo has told Daily Revelation that the list of appointed ambassadors will be availed to the public this week.
And Daily Revelation has learnt that among the postings to be announced include ambassadors and High Commissioners for Washington, United States; London, United Kingdom; Beijing, China; Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia among others.
When contacted by Daily Revelation on Information that among the diplomats appointed was UPND national chairman Stephen Katuka for Namibia and A[pp-logged-users]ndrew Banda for China, among others, Kakubo refused to mention the names, telling this journalist to wait for the list which he said will be availed this week.
“The list of ambassadors will be released during the course of the week, so my advice is that you wait,” he said.
Asked why it has taken long for the government to fill the postings given that the majority of those who were recalled have been back in the country for some time now, Kakubo responded: “No! No! I don’t know what litmus you are using to say it has taken long. I don’t know what you are using as media to check who is back and who is not back. When diplomats are recalled there are many processes that take place. Some are recalled with immediate effect, others are given three months notice.”
He continued.
“They are not all recalled at the same time, the government decided to recall strategically. And when government is making these strategic changes in the civil service, which includes the diplomats, it’s not always done through the media. There is also what we call quiet diplomacy. And then to deploy the diplomats the other countries must agree…some agreemials take six months, some of them take a week,” said Kakubo, who was asked how much the government had set aside for the exercise and he responded: “What has been set aside is exactly what was approved by parliament. We will only spend money within the limits of what was approved by parliament.”[/pp-logged-users]
