Sakeni calls for immediate completion of ZANIS restructuring exercise

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Services Kennedy Sakeni has called for the immediate restructuring of the entire Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS) in order to address the disparities in salary scales among workers.

ZANIS reports that Mr. Sakeni, who is also Chief Government Spokesperson, lamented

that the restructuring exercise had taken too long to complete adding that this has adversely affected the staff morale.

He further complained that the state of affairs was unfair because officers who have the same qualifications and do the same work were getting different salaries.

He has since challenged technocrats in his ministry to resolve the restructuring of the department as it had not benefited other officers apart from those at the ZANIS headquarters.

Mr. Sakeni said the imbalance in basic salaries within the same department also affects the morale of employees.

“How do you attract qualified manpower if you cannot provide the basic salaries because in the end officers will leave,” he asked.

The minister said this when he toured ZANIS provincial offices in Mansa yesterday on his continued tour of media institutions in Northern and Luapula Provinces.

He has since appealed to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry Amos Malupenga to double efforts and resolve the issue quickly.

In a related development, Mr. Sakeni has learnt that most ZANIS officers at the provincial office in Mansa had remained assistant officers for more than six years without receiving any promotions.

“This is worrying because how do you have almost the entire office being assistants to people who are non-existent, assistant to who?” he questioned.

Mr. Sakeni said the happenings in his ministry were an indication of inefficiency on the part of the department of human resource.

He has since called for the human resource department at his ministry headquarters to ensure that they promote all deserving officers country wide.

The minister met ZANIS staff in Mansa and was briefed about the state of affairs by the Provincial Information Officer Christopher Ndhlovu.

In 2006, the departments of Zambia Information Service (ZIS) and Zambia News Agency (ZANA) were merged in a restructuring exercise to form Zambia News and Information Services (ZANIS).

This was however only done at department’s national headquarters in Lusaka.

Since then, ZANIS district and provincial headquarters have not been restructured.

The previous government had cited lack of funding to complete the exercise.