Africa can redeem herself
SIR—I read with interest Robert Kabushenga’s article of March 2 entitled “Black power for Ugandaâ€.
SIR—I read with interest Robert Kabushenga’s article of March 2 entitled “Black power for Ugandaâ€. This was spot-on, coming on the heels of a very constructive Capital Gang session in a long time. We do not need to look far for success stories of Black power turning around the hitherto loss-making parastatals. Look at Kenya Airways. When KLM came in, they brought only one “Smithâ€, the indomitable Brian Davies, with two other “Kamausâ€
(read black Kenyans). The rest of the rank and file were drawn from its original manpower. The results are there for all to see.
It is only a question of attitude, focus and vision, from the top leadership, inculcated into the general staff and the rest will fall in line. And this is what we need, especially from the leadership at the Privatisation and Investment Desks. The attitude that Uganda has no skilled people is a dangerous myth. Some Europeans even think that we don’t have trainable manpower and take the opportunity of ferrying in all sorts of ‘expatriates’. Having said that, a lot of course needs to be done, especially on the aspect of attitude and customer care. And naturally there is what James Handy calls the ‘Elephant worship’ phenomenon among us, especially where former employees take over parastatals as owners. This employer-employee relationship is detrimental to business and development.
Most of the successful American companies for example have a first name culture, right from the managing director to the cleaner.
This eases the work atmosphere, unlike our ‘Mr, Sir, Madam’ phenomenon.
Amon Mabekiza
kagap@yahoo.co.uk
(read black Kenyans). The rest of the rank and file were drawn from its original manpower. The results are there for all to see.
It is only a question of attitude, focus and vision, from the top leadership, inculcated into the general staff and the rest will fall in line. And this is what we need, especially from the leadership at the Privatisation and Investment Desks. The attitude that Uganda has no skilled people is a dangerous myth. Some Europeans even think that we don’t have trainable manpower and take the opportunity of ferrying in all sorts of ‘expatriates’. Having said that, a lot of course needs to be done, especially on the aspect of attitude and customer care. And naturally there is what James Handy calls the ‘Elephant worship’ phenomenon among us, especially where former employees take over parastatals as owners. This employer-employee relationship is detrimental to business and development.
Most of the successful American companies for example have a first name culture, right from the managing director to the cleaner.
This eases the work atmosphere, unlike our ‘Mr, Sir, Madam’ phenomenon.
Amon Mabekiza
kagap@yahoo.co.uk