President of the Zambia Congress of Trade Unions Leonard Hikaumba says time has come for the Zambia Police Service to allow its officers to belong to a trade union movement.
Mr. Hikaumba has now appealed to the PF government to consider allowing police officers to start joining a union of their choice.
“This is an issue we pushed very hard with colleagues in the past administration. The MMD refused to buy into this idea but we feel we have a chance with the PF government because it has shown that it is worker friendly and police officers are workers too.”
Mr. Hikaumba told the recently concluded Tripartite Consultative Labour Council in Lusaka that Zambia should emulate countries such as South Africa which has allowed officers in the South African Police Service to be unionized.
“We recently had the representative of the South African Police Union officiated at the biannual
“There is nothing wrong with allowing the police officers to be unionized, the fears that we have cannot be justified because industrial relations in the police service could still be managed even with the unionization of the police service,” Mr. Hikaumba explained.
Good idea let them have a union so that their complaints can well be presented to government
that can never happen
yawn,yawn
The way Tongas thinks sometimes is scary mwee.. Tomorrow he will ask Sata to join the union too. Did he ever ask Shamenda what Zambian trade Union means?
#3 you are foolish and stupid, anythng that comes frm a tonga is useles, grow up you ***** bemba. U are the same pipo who that one zambia one nation.
Hikaumba, what would happen if the policemen and women went on a countrywide strike?
the same thing that happens when doctors do it or any other profession its not like police work is the most vital thing in the world.
Glittering jewel of protestant zeal seems to be the reilef of community and sense of belonging offered on a local level to lost souls. This reilef happens in the fellowship hall or social center where its warm, there’s food, the kids are amusing themselves, where everyone of course is welcomed to the service upstairs in half an hour, where the walls won’t collapse, where the altar is located for consideration, also the banners, music teams, and comfort of caring social distractions pew to pew. Birds of a feather flocking together. The mystery of faith for Catholics to describe is a challenge in a society that wants everything now. The variety of Catholic shelters, hospitals, food pantries, schools, charitable organizations, used to be orphanages, nursing homes, childcare,…
The purpose of a union is to improve the lot of its members. A strange opinion exits that unions are about strikes.
A strike (withdrawal of labour) will happen anyway. It happens when ever you rush to the police and they tell you “…no transport” or “…ka unga, bwana” or some other such statement.
Policemen/women provide services to the citizens just like teachers, nurses, doctors and everybody else. So what happens when doctors or teachers go on nation wide strike will happen when police do the same. Why deny them workers rights of belonging to unions. Only a dictatorial regime would insist.
nouveau-but could work -well done mr hikaumba…we need people like u in zambia who are still thinking…it wouldnt hurt to explore the idea
very short-sighted idea, just focussing on policemen and women as workers only, without looking at the security-sensitive nature of their job. Just imagine the police joining in a workers’ protest!!!!
there is nothing security-sensitive about policemen forming a Union. Many countries have police service unions. Stop being stuck in past. Policemen are civilians, they are not soldiers – they can form a Union. It is this cowardice why Africa is constantly the least developed continent on earth. no courage to move forward…and yet you continue begging for aid from other continents. shame.
# 5 Hikaumba has given a good example of SAPS whose officers are unionised..Ever heard of the entire SAPS going on a countrywide strike?Does work like that, but they are allowed to air their grievances..Lets give our men and women in uniform an opportunity to speak out their burning issues!
Hikaumba, SHUT UP.
You are the most useless Union Leaders Zambia ever had.
SHUT UP. Don’t confuse us please in trying to cleanse yourself. We all know that Police needs better conditions of service, this is a fact.
BUT, YOU shut up immorality…..
Pliz go back to school. you are so dull and illiterate you can’t even express yourself…
This UPND cadre never cease to amaze me,Hikaumba you have failed to run ZCTU on so many occasions just like H has failed to his UPND Party,
You are the most useless ma rubbish Zambia has ever conceived! Since when did HH fail to run UPND? Are you suffering from DEMENTIA!
Are you choking with envy?
Bo Hikaumba what is really your problem?
Sata is not a person who support workers. Right now every Zambian worker is suffering because of Sata’s greediness of wasting our money on bribing useless people like Namulambe a kaponya and fraud!
Mr. Hikaumba, shallow thinking. Where in the world have you seen police officers, soldiers having a union? This just goes to show that you don’t know what a trade union is and you are not fit to be a president of the trade unions. You have faile to represent the unions under you and you are advocating for the impossible. Shallow thinking.
In the UK and in South Africa!
@Chipuzi — sometimes read the story again before commenting. He has given you an example of where policemen are unionised. Are you so illiterate that you can’t even read properly? Secondly, policemen and soldiers are not in the same category. Policemen are civilians, soldiers are not. But ofcourse you are too dull understand this.
Hikaumba got no brain .he thinks like HH now suppoz they was a nationalwide strike?kwata amano iwe.
@kopa nakis, what makes you think that Nostradamus is Bemba. For instance, I am not Bemba myself but think your comment is out of context. You comment is fuming with rage and jealousy. What is that some of Tongas have about Bembas kansi? Hikaumba, Tonga or not is useless. We never heard him ask RB for that because he was busy chewing with him. So, you and Hikaumba should shut your rotten mabisi mouths.
@ ka gelo —- stop telling lies here. Hikaumba asked RB, he asked Levy Mwanawasa. Go to the library and check past newspapers. But ofcourse you are a typical PF cadre boiling over with illteracy and dullness. Don’t criticise anybody by using your ignorance. Maybe focus on your tribal discussions since you seem more knowledgeable in defending your tribe than discussing issues – typical of PF cadres.
Please guys never bring up ethnic divisions just contradict the points raised by the man with your ideas and state why you think they are better. Please grow up. Zambia is no Rwanda.
Looks like every blog must rear some tribal sentiment. Disgusting. We lose focus with each useless tribal or ethnic comment that oozes out into civilization…grow up people!!
In as much as it is just humane for workers to form a collective bargaining organization, there is a downside as to why these workers should not be the police, the army nor the airforce. In Zambian perspective, the National service is quite useless apart from raking cabbages.
Delving into the matter at hand, forming a union accords its members a chance to hold swey on their management or paymaster on the improvement of conditions of service and such essential matters. It can even improve Zambia service lives by according them a chance to bargain for hardship allowances, risk allowances and rural stipends.
However, as mentioned earlier, just the mere fact that workers can hold sway over their paymasters so as to meet their ends, it would turn out a very detrimental issue in an ignorant country like Zambia. Forinstance, when other unionized workers break out on strike, it is the police that keep them in check so the situation does not turn violent. And often times, the strike over work conditions that are way above that of the police controlling them. To spek of the extremes, imagine the police going on strike… All theings they try to protect, i.e. the law, unlawful gathering, the presidency would be temporarily left to the wind. The immediate solution would be to replace them by troops. And this has to be sunctioned by parliament. Given our history, we can not trust the presidency with tro
ops as they have tried a few coups… I digress, God forbit that all the service men went on strike at the same time. Besides, the police have a very defined way of controlling the outcome of elections and hence political composition.
In conclusion, I would suggest you educate yourselves to the British Police STrikes in 1918 and 1919. This action prompted the parliament to pass a law to ban police having any for of union or association. They are civil servants to the full meaning of the work and they have to remain as such. No domestic servant would go on strive and leave a normally functioning house. Police are the same, just public. Plus they can have guns…
I will never understand the thinking of Zambians….they just wake up and start…..because SAPS belong to a Union ..so Zambian police should form a Union……because Barack Obama has a bullet proof car…. So Michael Sata should have a bullet proof car…………….so and so has 5 wives and so we should have 5 wives……blah blah blah… how pathetic…
and you think UKWA can allow the police have a union…? And who told you that PF is worker friendly?shallow minded hichilema…!!!!!
And how does Hichilema come into the picture here?
They are united!!… United for corruption
Hikaumba, he is looking at himself as a beneficiary only. The more members he has, the more money in his pocket. Police conditions are good, it is just that they are used to “nicekeleko”, that is why you think their conditions are pathetic. They even get paid while on training, who gets money while being trained?
It is not for Hikaumba to champion for the formation of Unions. His role is to cordinate with Unions that are already in existence. Is it that he wants more more in his federation ?. What is his interest if the police themselves are happy being without a union. Let the police themselves engage their employer and push for a union.
Police Service is in many cases and by nature a Police Force. They just neutrolize force to service. Policing a nations many times deals with cases that require the force and not the service of the Police. They follow commands and disobeying commands because of unionism will render the Police compromised, toothless and irrelevant when the nation needs them. How do you deal with rioting when Police are on strike?
Ba Hikaumba; if you dont have anything to say its better to shutup. How do unionise the POLICE? Imagin what would happen if they were to go on strike? What is needed is to put the relevant incentives for the COPS.
now u know how zambians think African, police provide a service and not forces ….. they r already compromised and toothless with politics anyway.