By Patson Chilemba
Former Finance minister Ng’andu Magande says the move by ministers and members of parliament to increase their salaries clearly shows the kind of greedy leaders the country is building.
Speaking with Daily Revelation, Magande said in the circumstances the country finds itself in, this was an environment where people should go into government to serve, and that serving meant sharing the little there was with other people.
He said particularly in recent years, a lot of people who go into government already have some means of livelihood, which would even be higher than most of the majority of their “neighbors”, that leaders must be able to behave like neighbors as that is the only thing that will enable them to offer a service to the people.
“But I think what has happened in the recent past is that young people see somebody driving a BMW and they say once I become an MP or I become a minister I want to buy not MB300 but MB600. And this competition has brought a lot of greed. Apart from greed; jealousy, that in fact when you see somebody putting on another suit you also want to get the suit,” Magande said. “So I am really very disappointed that here is a group of young people who were campaigning on the basis of ‘we are going to rectify the economic problems. We are going to make sure that people have better lives and then the first thing they do when they have the opportunity to make a decision they are asking for salaries (hike) for themselves.”
He said this is not how leaders must behave in public office, and that it was not even a question of comparing whether an MD of some parastatal institution was earning more “than you as a minister.”
“It is you as a minister saying what is the general trend in the country? How many people don’t even get a salary every month? How many people even get less salary than what you are getting now? As long as you live and survive I think that should be enough,” Magande said. “Otherwise really that is what is going to spoil everything. These young people are saying we are going for service and now they are asking for more and more in terms of public money and that public money which is not available because the majority of citizens have no incomes to pay taxes. So really I would advise them that let them wait, they still have four years to go and perhaps if the issue of debt is resolved then they can really say we have worked and we have achieved this, can we be rewarded with K2.”
Magande said the money the ministers would be money an ordinary citizen planned for some time back.
“What work have they done already? So for me actually it’s misplaced and it’s showing what kind of leaders we are trying to build. By the way, leadership doesn’t mean it’s only in politics. It’s even in personal behavior and that is what some of us have been basically working towards that everywhere where I am I should provide leadership,” Magande said, adding that he opposed the leadership code, proposing that there should be one showing a threshold of how much someone should earn and that the rest of the money should go to taxes. “Because I am a leader in the office as permanent secretary, the knowledge that I am accumulating from all over the world when will I apply it. So I said it is better that leaders are allowed, in particular those who are professionals to do something in their professions as long as they don’t go beyond some kind of threshold which is set for that position.”
Parliament last Thursday unanimously approved to increase up to 17 percent salaries and allowances paid to MPs.
The increase means that MPs will average a take home pay of K80,000 and be entitled to K3000 per sitting and US$120,000 car loan.
And Magande, who tuned 75 years old yesterday, said it gives him pride and praise that as he was heading cattle in the bush he never expected that he would end up serving multitudes of people whom he did not even know, and that at the end of it people would know his same, saying that was very important.
“Those who won’t know it at least they will know that there was somebody like me when I do go away where I came from, which is all planned by God,” he said
Magande said it has been a momentous chance for him which he said he has also enjoyed as he has made a lot of friends on the way.
He said he felt satisfied that he tried his best to be a role model, saying during the time he served under late president Levy Mwanawasa people used to say that he would go where he asked imprest for, but some where asking for imprest to buy fertilizer.
“So I kept on saying these wrong things you do when nobody is watching they will catch up with you. So really I feel that I have tried to be a leader since in fact leaders are not only politicians, but they are in all walks of life. And that is very satisfying for me. I wished as many as possible would have listened to my advice, just like now I am sure there are others who perhaps meet me and ask me something and when I advise them they ignore. But that is their choice,” said Magande. “So for me I didn’t seem to have a lot of choice about keeping integrity in my operations because I was also brought up under very strict sort of family values and so on that you have to tell the truth. If you do lie it will come out one day. If you do anything wrong it will come out one day. So really I pity those who were perhaps my followers who have ended up there because then it simply means they had the opportunity to do the right thing but they decided not to follow that.”
