Manasseh against Jospong: Zoomlion contract and YEA sweepers are different but converge for obvious reasons

Manasseh has been throwing dust into the eyes of Ghanaians. I read with disdain his Christmas message purporting to be pleading with the President, H. E. Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to cancel the Sanitation Improvement Package (SIP), which project ensures that principal streets in the capital cities of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are kept clean every morning because he concludes Zoomlion is short-changing the sweepers to make millions of Ghana cedis.

For the first time, Manasseh Azure Awuni has shifted from his usual insulting and commandeering posture to begging President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to terminate Zoomlion’s waste collection contract because to him he feels the Youth Employment Authority (YEA) sweepers have been short-changed by Zoomlion as though he is not the one who has been insulting presidents and statesmen including Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on daily basis.

I have ever asked Manasseh to put himself up for presidential contest if he feels fit because no one president of this nation will allow him (Manasseh) to direct their affairs.

You vilified former President John Mahama so much so that you even hanged a ford gift on his neck and drummed the guinea fowls flying to Burkina Faso which never happened though and which you have regretted and made public pronouncements to that effect yet your pomposity has not permitted you to apologize to the former president.

It is the same wicked tactics you are imploring on President Nana Addo and I bet you, you will regret it soon when your senses and good judgement returns.

When you don’t know you simply ask, do not lie and call it journalism. If what you do were being subjected editorial review, certainly they will not pass for publication because they are usually one sided. You use the pen to fight people you hate and not those you have established wrong doing against.

Indeed, everyone is fallible so I may not completely say Jospong is a saint just like you but when your prayer and ambition is to see the back of someone they always see your face first and so they are sure prepared for you.

Here is the truth as you have decided to spew your lies around, I also went asking for the facts; Zoomlion is a private business entity, Zoomlion negotiated with Government of Ghana based on the number of sweepers that government will engage and to provide the following for them to be able to work effectively;

1. Waste trucks, containers, manual and motorised cycles, drivers and Janitors and,

2. Shovels, rakes, picking rots, alley brooms, hand gloves, pick axes, uniforms and safety boots etc etc.

Zoomlion also employs what is call Monitors to supervise the sweepers to ensure that the sweepers do their work well.

Fact: Zoomlion does not determine how much the sweepers earn, neither is it Zoomlion’s mandate to negotiate their allowances, it is government and the reason why government decides that their allowances should be paid through Zoomlion is obvious. The company manages and supervises the sweepers alongside the Youth Employment Authority supervisors at the MMDAs.

It is deliberate for the purposes of consistency and regularity in payment knowing how government system is bureaucratically slow.

My information is that, there have been several instances whereby Zoomlion Ghana Limited borrows from the bank to pay these sweepers with heavy interests because government sometimes owe the company well over eighteen (18) months which the workers cannot continue to work without being paid so when Manasseh suggests that government should terminate the contract with Zoomlion and pay them through the assemblies or YEA he should have done an in-depth research and understood what he is calling for and tell us his knowledge about the inconsistencies the Common Fund disbursement faces with apologetic delays.

Has government effectively paid the NABCO workers? Is that a course of worry to Manasseh? He may just have arrived from South Africa where his lies took him to exile.

Manasseh’s preposterous assumption that the workers are paid GHC600.00 where Zoomlion now decides to give them GHC180.00 and retain GHC420.00 is logically imbalance because the agreements were made differently.

It is government that engages the sweepers and decides that it will pay them GH180.00. It is also government that entered into a contract with Zoomlion and agrees that for the provision of Waste trucks, containers, drivers and Janitors, shovels, rakes, picking rots, alley brooms, hand gloves, pick axes, uniforms and boots and so on the company should be paid GHC420.00 based on the number of sweepers it (government) will engage.

Yes, the same government says based on the fact that Zoomlion works closely with the sweepers and not government, the payment should pass through the hands of Zoomlion to the workers to ensure efficiency and that is what Manasseh fails to appreciate.

Indeed, my research reveals that, apart from their allowances, Zoomlion as part of its Social Corporate Responsibly and the rapport it has with these sweepers, gives them kilos of rice and oil during the yuletide. It also donates to these sweepers sums of money when they are bereaved while majority of the workers are enrolled with the National Health Insurance so why did Manasseh lie and refused to include these to his message?

Hatred and vile propaganda against Jospong. It is funny that what you did to Mr. Roland Agambire of RLG fame you have no regrets after all when you call him he still picks your calls. You were a phone call away why did you not call Jospong to get his side of the story and you went out publishing your lies. Hate will not win.

In any case, which of the MMDAs has the capacity to collect the waste that is being gattered every morning by the sweepers and provide the PPEs listed that you are suggesting the contract be terminated or is it the case that your hatred against Jospong had hindered your ability to think without biases? Maybe just maybe you will have to support the assemblies with your wide insulting mouth to augment their capacity to collect the waste when Zoomlion is gone for wishes can never be horses so stop your wishful thinking and find something productive to do.

Do not seek to gain notoriety for fighting Ghanaian businesses with monopoly status.

Christmas is a period for forgiveness not a period to advance hatred and self-seeking credit for ourselves.

I end with the saying that “you never know what you’ve got till you lose it” and if your quest succeeds and Zoomlion is gone like RLG you will wish them back and it will be too late. Do not even think that we do not know your hatred for Jospong, it is public knowledge.

Writer is a journalist with focus on environmental sanitation and waste management