Dear Editor,
Lately, there has been a lot of public outcry over the increase in subscription fees of DSTV. Story going round there is a petition going on against the proposed increase.
Since birth, I have never seen so much unity among consumers over a private or public service delivery.
My concern is not on the service in question, rather it is on the people protesting and on what I term “miss-placement of priorities”.
Zambia, for those who have traveled widely and far, is one of the Countries with the highest internet rates and yet slow internet speed but there has not been any protest for the billions of Kwacha consumers continue to lose even when prices are increased.
Look at the mealie meal prices, cement prices and yet no single Zambian has ever stood up to stage a protest over such important commodities and yet these are things that even affect the voiceless people in Shangombo and Tafera Nsoni.
To be realistic, how many people watch DSTV in Zambia? You may discover that even to mention two million is very much exergeration. The current population of Zambia is 14+ million people who all consume maize meal and benefit from low cement prices but there has never been a protest for increase in prices for such important commodities.
Not only that, Zambia is a place where during campaigns, politicians would promise one thing and do the exact opposite other and yet you will never see a single Zambian protest the change of campaign promise.
Right now as I type this article, the Zambian economy is on its knees and yet there has not been anyone who has stood to protest so that the president may address the situation.
As a matter of fact, the increase in the DSTV rates have been necessitated by the Dollar rate which is as a result of the falling Kwacha, but the Zambians are for lack of a better term too dumb to realize that and are pushing for a petition against the DSTV increase instead of the people who make Economic and Trade policies.
If half the energy people have spent on discussing Multi Choice and other irrelevant issues was used to debate the poor Trade policies our Country faces, Zambia would be on a totally different level.
It is because of this misplacement of priorities that there is unproductiveness in the public sector. People go to the office, abuse the PABX system to chat about who had beaten who in their favorite Telemundo series at the expense of their work and there are so many examples we can have on that unproductivity.
At a personal level and National level, there is need for us to re-prioritize our priorities. It has cost us more.
Da Christlover