ZESCO Managing Director, Victor Mundende, and Energy Regulations Board (ERB) Chief Executive Officer, Ms Langiwe Hope Lungu and their Management have been called to emulate President Edgar Lungu in publicly slashing their salaries.
In supporting President Lungu call for sacrifice among highly paid civil servants, Cabinet Ministers and parastatal executive, Governance and Legal Activist Isaac Mwanza charged that leaders of institutions responsible for determining tarrifs on electricity and fuel, including the Ministry of Energy must take leadership by showing they too can wear the same shoes as ordinary people during troubled moments.
Mr Mwanza has meanwhile called on the ZESCO Board and its Managing Director an end to a policy where ZESCO employees are buying electricity at K50 which lasts for two or more months.
“We are aware, to this day when ERB and ZESCO have increased tariffs by over 110 percent, that ZESCO employees enjoy a policy of buying electricity at K50. How can ZESCO therefore claim they share in the pain of ordinary citizens when the cost of electricity for them is a mere K50?”, said Mr Mwanza.
Mr Mwanza stated that it only becomes considerate for ZESCO employees to enjoy the privilege of buying electricity at K50 when all is well in supply of electricity in the country.
Mr Mwanza has further called on all Cabinet Ministers and senior Public Civil Servants to heed the President’s call to cut down on emoluments as part of the sacrifice during this difficult period.
“The public service is about providing better service to the public and if those who serve the public are not prepared to subject themselves to the same sacrifice the public is subjected to, then those leaders lose a moral right to lead citizens,” he said
For the first time, Isaac Mwanza is speaking sense. But listen to the deafening silence; no one has publicly accepted to follow Lungu by slashing a whooping 20% from their salaries!
This is a sad example of how Lungu is out of touch with the terrible economic situation.
Lungu doesnt use his salary to buy food, electric units, pay water water bills, etc because these are paid for by Govt. However, his ministers and senior civil servants have to pay for these bills from the same salaries Lungu wants to slash after increasing electric and fuel prices!
So, we can now see the extent to which this Ar.sewhore of kama President Lungu is completely out of touch! He is even hurting his supporters – very dangerous for him!
We the Zambians are a problem; we are easily fooled and believe every lie presented to us. A Cut of 20% salary will neither reduce your Fuel nor Electricity bills. These people are not serious, evil and corrupt. If he is serious, let him cut His presidential, the VP and all other Ministers Motorcades. Just watch the Fleet of cars they use? Let alone the abuse of funds from tollgates. He has failed and should step down.
Ba Zesco and other civil servants bamuziba Jesu, wait until 2021 Sept
Lungu means well for Zambia. Challenges is we politik all the time, especially HH
Chenda – What year is it? Where was your Lungu three years ago if he meant well for the country these are the things he should have been doing? Look at John Magufuli of Tanzania what he did on the first day of office he instructed AG to undertake a full audit of govt payroll to get rid of ghost workers, last week he ordered renegotiating of a Chinese contract for a port construction as his country was giving away all rights to one company to run all the ports.What was your Lungu doing? Dancing on stage like a drunkard, he can suspend salaries for his ministers till 2021 nothing will be felt, its too little too late but I guess he is banking on dull simple chaps like you who dont know what $20 billion debt looks like.
Lungu was drunk when he made this declaration. Just ignore him.
Just like he has ignored those cries for corruption to stop.
Lungu and his friends do not even need salaries if the allegations of grand corruption and theft are to be believed.
He is just playing politics and preying on the weakened average citizens mind.
What a joke of a man.
Royalty coming to Barbados to steal?Visit our jails first.Stop going to Sandy Lane.Boycott.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Who the helll are you?
Some nut case…..
Do not go in at Chefette.Beware of the dogs.Boycott.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Salary slash is joke of 2019.
Time is surely catching up.
No more sweet talk.
Zambians are done with this government
Royalty and their cronies could go to hell.Peter Carlos Hinds.
He should have poured perfume in his toilet.Peter Carlos Hinds.
Stop taking hard drugs……and seek rehab
How is ZESCO going to slash anything when they have already been rewarded with increments of 200% in earnings for a commodity they are even failing to supply. Someone has already given them a get out jail card.
Why must ZESCCO employees be paying K50 for electricity? No wonder no efficiency in ZESCCO! End this K50 electricity and we all will be cool. U spoke sense Isaac. Good the President took that route, problem is ZESCCO
It reminds me of the free Lusaka to NY and Delhi, Zambia Airways employees used to get.
HH will come and fix it all. All those emplpyees at ZESCO, enjoy today till 2021. The hour of reckoning is coming!
The tariff has to increase in order to finance the salaries of 16,000 bloated Zesco staff including their free electricity, per person more than twice what a high cost house would use. And here is ERB not mentioning Zesco’s obnoxious cost structure. Why? State capture of course!! Zesco us more powerful than the regulator. Why do we need ERB when their function of increasing tariffs can be carried out better in a department of Zesco.
Dont forget something as well as, the need to restore the function if Zesco asa cash cow for PF, with elections approaching. Honestly, we expected ERB to make an honest assessment and comment of Zesco costs and give appropriate directives. No need for Hamble to cut his salary if ERB did its job. And that is where Gamble can direct his energies and achieve…
….. And that is where Hamble can direct his energies and achieve sensible quick wins.
Fromthe archives, March 2017: “Minister of Finance Felix Mutati also made it clear that tariff reforms should be accompanied with improvements in the efficiency by Zesco Limited, and further directed the Industrial Development Corporation to carry out a situational analysis to determine viable options that should be taken at the power utility.”
What has ERB said about Zesco efficiency? Nothing, because in Hamble’s country you dare not question Zesco.
Slashing salaries is not an economic plan that will take us anywhere. What is the plan to reduce corruption?
The guys in the picture appear clueless, even their boss at Zesco does not wish to appear in the same photo with them.
Be bold, change the management, hire expatriates with renewable energy experience to come and inject life at this institution. ZESCO has been a money pit, shame we don’t have investigative journalists to question where those huge investments by successive governments have gone. I’m sure like many other government institutions, ZESCO is probably using the same infrastructure from the UNIP days. Build capacity and you will enjoy more perks but these so-called managers are clueless. Maybe load-shedding should be made illegal to force creativity out of these managers.