STOP THE ROT!

GOVERNMENT must quickly assure the nation that the countrywide recruitment of teachers and health workers is above board.

It must not be portrayed as a failed project just because some people - politicians – feel their petty interests have not been met.

It does not make sense that there are conflicting or should we say misleading statements over the recruitment exercise within the same administration.

We do not understand why the recruitment exercise that the government has gone to great lengths to ensure it is corruption-proof should all of a sudden be ridden with negative assertions that all is not well.

To ensure that all parts of the country were covered, the government decentralised the recruitment drive by ensuring that the process started at district level with various state organs involved.

And just when everyone thought the most difficult phase had been handled well, out popped Southern Province Minister Cornelius Mweetwa, demanding that the list of successful candidates from the region submitted to the Teaching Service Commission be recalled.

His reasons?

He claimed he did not know how some names found their way on the list.

He was quickly followed by another government official in the North-Western Province who equally cried foul.

Against these negative sentiments, Education Minister Douglas Siakalima was assuring the nation in Parliament that the teachers’ recruitment exercise was corrupt-free.

That is what every Zambian expected.

But the negative narrative from some quarters within the new dawn administration that the exercise has not been done well is sending wrong signals in the nation.

And what is frightening are some of the stories coming about “retributions” for those who are perceived to be disregarding “hidden directives.”

Dr Brian Sampa, the Residents Doctors Association of Zambia president has just disclosed something that should jolt Zambians, that a top civil servant in Western Province is threatening to fire those shortlisting people from other regions.

According to Dr Sampa, Western Province Permanent Secretary Simomo Akapelwa had written to the district commissioner in Mongu confirming a complaint that their offices were left out in the selection process of teachers and health workers and indicated that action would be taken on them if evidence was produced.

Cabinet Office must put an immediate stop to this charade that is not building but destroying the nation.

And Dr Sampa is right that Government should not victimise individuals carrying out the recruitment process of health workers and teachers.

But Dr Sampa said the real issue was that the two officers hailed from other parts of the country and that they did not want people from other regions to be on the list because they had their own.

Zambians must insist that professionalism must be the catchword during the recruitment exercise any attempts at circumventing this defeats the whole purpose of de-politicising the public service.

Cabinet Office must put a stop to this and let the best be recruited. It must stop the rot.