YOUTH, Sports and Arts Minister Elvis Nkandu has appealed to Zambians to appreciate leaders when they do something good because it will motivate them to do more.
And Nkandu says Zambians should scrutinise individuals like Socialist Party leader Fred M’membe, who are arrogant and self-centered, so that they don’t elect them as president.
Meanwhile, Nkandu says it is regrettable that no government official attended the memorial service for Zambia’s fallen heroes who died in the Gabon air disaster in 1993.
In an interview, Tuesday, Nkandu commented on M’membe’s claim that Zambian politicians were often picked from leftover trash, while the most knowledgeable individuals were chosen as church or traditional leaders.
He described the Socialist Party leader as arrogant and warned Zambians against electing him president.
“Fred M’membe should never question the intelligence of Zambians. He thinks he is the only person in this country who understands politics and who should dictate how Zambians should vote and think. That’s arrogance at its highest level. He should never question the intelligence of Zambians. It’s the same people that he would want to vote for him to become president. Zambians should be very careful with the people they entrust with leadership. He is not even in office but he is arrogant as he is portraying now, you can imagine if given the instruments of power and what he can do to Zambians,” he said.
“Zambians scrutinise before giving mandates to people. Sometimes we even have more than six presidential candidates and elect one. So how could someone question their capacity of thinking and their intelligence? This is where Zambians should see the people requesting to become presidents. People should never think of such individuals because they’ve already shown us that they are very arrogant and these may not listen to the concerns of other people. He thinks he has the monopoly of knowledge himself. Unfortunately he is not. I appeal to Zambians to look thoroughly into such individuals so that they don’t make a mistake of voting for such people who are very arrogant and self-centered”.
Meanwhile, speaking when he featured on Hot FM, Nkandu said athletes must utilise the media to thank government when they were paid, instead of complaining of late payments.
“Zambians, Africans or any other person, do you know why there’s a word complaining? It’s because at every situation, people can complain. We should not remove in our dictionary, the word complaining, until this word is removed then people will stop complaining (sic). As long as there’s a word called complain, people will continue complaining. Even when you do everything within your powers, people still complain. People can even complain on something that is positive. Something that’s positive, someone will turn it into a negative thing. So complaints will continue being there,” he said.
“When looking for solutions, they will be there. You can also tell these athletes that when they are paid, the best they could do is to go to other media platforms and say government has paid. You only see them when they are complaining. I have never seen anyone come to you and say the issue has been resolved. People are very busy with negativities but not with positives. They don’t congratulate. Money can be there but leadership is important. I don’t shy from saying when you’ve done something right, though it’s your duty, it’s better you’re congratulated. It’s better someone tells you ‘thank you very much’ because that motivates you to do even more”.
The minister said he would be motivated to do more as a leader if he was appreciated for doing something right.
“So what I always look for from our people, sometimes when your leaders have done something good, appreciate them. By appreciating them, you’re motivating them. But we cannot force people to appreciate what we’re doing. I am just requesting them that when leaders are doing something correctly, better you appreciate them because you’re motivating them to do even more. It’s my role, it’s my duty to do what I am supposed to do but when I am appreciated, I feel very happy that maybe I am doing something right. If I am not appreciated, I may think there’s something wrong I am doing and yet I am doing something right,” he said.
Discussing loans under his ministry, Nkandu said it was very discouraging that the loan repayment rate stood below 30 per cent.
“On the repayment, this is an issue we are grappling with. I believe that this is not only among young people. It’s about all of us Zambians. I think we have this negative attitude towards paying back loans. People will come running when looking for loans and other empowerment programmes, but when they start paying back, they come crawling. That’s very unfortunate. People should continue running when paying back because we have a queue of young people who also want to benefit. If you hold on to the money, other people won’t benefit. The President said credibility is compromised when we don’t pay back loans. We’ll continue sensitising people to pay back loans. The repayment rate is something we cannot ride home about because it’s below 30 per cent when it comes to repayment of these loans. That’s very discouraging. It’s also maybe because of where we’re coming from. People used to just get things without paying back. They were used to handouts. We need a mindset change,” he said.
“Sometimes when councilors are given the mandate of identification of beneficiaries, sometimes you see that people still complain because that councilor only looked at their inner circle or his family. I think that’s not correct. We just continue sensitising these people that this is wrong. The repercussion is very simple. When we see you’re not doing correct things, definitely next time, they will not be considered. We have seen that happen because when you hear complaints from young people in that particular locality then you’ll be able to understand this is what really happened. So when someone is a first offender, you counsel them that this shouldn’t happen again. This ministry has got only its presence at provincial level. We’ve not yet gone to districts and constituencies. So it’s difficult for the ministry to do due diligence when choosing beneficiaries. However, we’re being helped by our district officials which are the DCs, councilors and through the ministry of community development”.
When asked whether any government official attended the memorial service, on April 28, 2025, for Zambia’s fallen national football team players who died in a plane crash in 1993, Nkandu admitted that no one attended.
“I’ll be very honest. We didn’t attend. It is very important. But I think we were just carried away by KK’s Day because all of us were spread. Some were in other provinces while some of us were at the golf tournament for KK’s Day. But I think it’s something we need to look at critically because that’s also as important as these other things. We’re honouring KK because of his contributions to the country. The fallen heros also made a lot of contributions to this country. I have taken note of that and we’re going to make amends. We’re going to make sure,” said Nkandu.
