THE CLOUDS WERE RUSHING TO LUSAKA

They were rushing to bring a chill

How fast, no one could really tell

God-sent, it seems, the people to drill

Smoky & silky as though to cast a spell

They looked innocent, yet so effective

No Lusakan could escape irrespective

In pockets they rushed, the sun to veil

The sun above them & the wind beneath

Mysteriously charged, they roamed earth

Lusaka could frost & fray for warmth!

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(c) M-L 12072021

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.

 

 

 

THE AFRICAN SUN

©Mwango Lupupa 23102016

To write it is my right; to sing it should be right

Goldenly the sun appears; mildly it disappears

Quietly peeling on the scaly mountains

Smouldering over the silky horizon

The grandeur seems just right

Like springs or seasonal fountains

Into the unending zone

Golden and mildly

All but once rightly

Sure it rises, truer it raises

On and through the green lush fields

On the soft blue or sparkly waters

Mothers and fathers, sons and daughters

Oh but it is God who raises the African sun

Even a song in the heart of an African

The African sun not only rises and raises

It also blesses all it shines upon

Oh wake up to this reality

For it dawns the day

And it ends its stay

To what end? To what profit?

You’ve to choose, you’ve got to say

I will sing about the African sun

I will sing it right because it’s my right

Being free under the African sun

Just feels right so as to do what's right

Seems just right so as to do what’s right

Good to be alive and to be counted for some good

Mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters

Rise like the sun unto good!

WINGS OF A STRANGER

 

 

 

 

She grows wings of a stranger

She unmistakably takes on wings of stranger

And she very readily mounts on wings of a stranger

She surprises and frustrates by her words or actions, her wings to master

She has no fixed loyalty to anyone; she’s but a cautiously disappointing drifter

She has no regrets keeping her promises as much as taking on voyager wings

No matter what good someone does for her, auto is her wing-flight mode

Married or not, needs no expert, then, now or ever, her wings really to prod

A man can love a woman but not completely know or understand her swings!

 ©Mwango Lupupa 022020

 
‘Wings of stranger’ depicts a character, particularly female, that disappoints or surprises you by their words or actions, by which you wonder if you know them at all! It’s a description of someone who does or says something undesirable that completely catches you unawares such that it makes you ask where it came from. Someone is held or said to take on, have or develop ‘wings of a stranger’ when they say or do something that frustrates or somehow pieces you off and makes you feel like they have become distant or as if they are a stranger momentarily. In my mother tongue, we say “amena amapipiko”, which is literally translated “he/she has grown wings”. You believe you know someone well? Think again!