ORGANISATIONAL TOOLS THAT BECOME INSTRUMENTS OF TORTURE: DISCIPLINARY CODE

 CODE OF DISCIPLINE

 

If you think that being forced to work, in the case of slavery was bad enough, BEING FORCED NOT TO WORK or out of it particularly by unjustly applied or manipulated disciplinary code is worse! It is dehumanising and torture. Most people or the general public in Zambia in this era seem to turn a blind eye to this or they are uncomfortable, or fearful or indifferent to decisively handle it or have it squarely addressed. When I looked up the word 'torture' in the Collins Cobuild Advanced Dictionary, I was satisfied that it means 'to deliberately cause great pain over a period of time in order to punish'; 'to cause to suffer great mental or physical pain or anxiety'. Where a disciplinary code is used without following laid down procedure and with the aim to fix someone, people become victims of hateful vendetta, or shameless and evil hounding at the hands of those who wield power or command it in organisations. I have not only heard about their suffering, I have also witnessed people being victimised and stripped of their hard earned incomes by a director with egoistical force and witch-hunt intent as if they are not accountable to anybody in a Quasi-Government institution.

 

That institution which is under a key Ministry in this country is successfully managed or run like it is a personal business, with intimidation, abuse of authority or office, and corruption to the extent that people wonder WHO the director of that institution knows or what strings they pull in the governance system to have any scrutiny off their back and get away with serious misconduct and abuse. One of the funniest situations was when they allegedly registered to attend two workshops at the same time, and lodged at one of the venues with their family. They also allegedly had an institutional vehicle which is just about five years old, 'evaluated' and bought off at a mere K35,000! The director is not satisfied with defrauding the institution by getting what is not theirs, or at least at little cost to them; they must defraud and torture all employees whom they don't like or they perceive to be “against” them by managing to unjustly and manipulatively use an organisational tool that has in-built rules and procedures, transparency and fairness. They craftily unilaterally suspend and dismiss employees and withhold some of their benefits. Somehow that director overrides all the rules and procedures, and all that go with that through a bogus disciplinary procedure. A number of employees have literally been forced not to work and out of it, and their lives shattered through unfounded or trumped-up charges, suspensions and unfair dismissals!

 

Many employees have been tortured while the Board and the parent Ministry watches; meanwhile the victims and their families squirm in untold psychological, physical and economic agony, without any hope of recourse. The irony is that while the institution itself represents something of law and justice, it has instead been made to perpetrate horrifying forms of injustice, abuse of authority and corruption through one person, the director. Finances meant to pay what is owed to staff and unduly dismissed employees are used to pay legal fees and purchase new motor vehicles. Should this be allowed to pass down history ignored and/or treated as unimportant? Where is justice for the victims of torture through the misapplied, abused, and manipulated disciplinary code of the institution? And where is justice to condemn the wrongdoer? By the way, the director will get their benefits when their contract (which one wonders why and how it was renewed under the circumstances) ends, leaving the institution obviously worse off! Usually those who have no other source of help and whose hope and strength have been stretched to the limit appeal to H.E. the President for help or intervention; I am humbly and heartily asking no less on behalf of the victims; napempa kuli atate aziko ba E.C.L. Their voices have even been stifled because they don’t believe such things have happened or have been let to happen by people who shouldn’t have let them get to that point in the first place. Albert Einstein said, “The world is dangerous to live in, not because of those who hurt, but because of those who watch and let it happen” and Desmond Tutu echoed something similar when he uttered that, ”If you are neutral in a situation of injustice, it is because you have chosen the camp of the oppressor.” Time of reckoning will surely come.