Patronage in Zambian Politics

1641 Words7 Pages
This assignment will discuss the importance of recruitment by patronage in Zambia. It will start by defining and explaining key words like recruitment and patronage. Then, it will be followed by the discussing the importance of recruitment by patronage in the country like Zambia and finally a conclusion. Recruitment is the process through which candidates are selected for their job purposes or it is an attempt to enhance human resources in an organization or institution. There are two types of recruitment and these are recruitment by merit and recruitment by patronage. In this discussion we pay particular attention to the importance of patronage recruitment in Zambia. Much of the literature on recruitment, describe the term, patronage as the power of employers, both public and private, and elected officials of government to make appointments on partisan considerations and to confer licences, contracts, honours, franchises and other benefits on political supporters, friends or relatives. Some writers also add that with regard to appointments to public office, patronage is an incentive the filling of public offices with political supporters or as a favour to a political supporter. This is actually, the recruitment based on favoritism. It is a process in which one selects people that are close to them. Patronage by recruitment is most evident in political appointments. In Zambia for example the constitution allows the president to nominate not more than eight members of parliament, appoint judges for high court and Supreme Court, permanent secretaries and other top government officials including all Zambian diplomats. As a result some of these appointments are made on the individual closeness or relationship with the president. In the patronage by recruitment qualifications tend to hold no value of significance. Generally speaking, recruitment typically begins
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