Update: ZEMA board sends all directors on leave and names Dr Joel Kabika interim director general

The board of the Zambia Environmental Management Agency has placed all directors at the agency on administrative leave with immediate effect, Green Economy and Environment Minister Dr Gilbert Siame announced on Tuesday 20 October. Dr Joel Kabika, an academic in the University of Zambia's School of Engineering, has been appointed interim Director General of ZEMA for six months. The directors will be assessed for competence, performance and suitability over 60 days before a decision is made on whether they return to their posts or are dismissed. At the end of Dr Kabika's interim term, the board is expected to advertise the permanent Director General position. Mr Siame said the move is part of a wider realignment that reaches every department under his ministry, aimed at bringing structures, staffing and operations in line with performance expectations. He said the process would follow the law and that routine services at ZEMA would continue without disruption. The announcement did not name the directors or say how many are affected. The leave order follows a series of changes at the agency this month. On Friday 2 October, Mr Siame dissolved the previous ZEMA board with immediate effect under powers in Chapter 204 of the Laws of Zambia, in a statement announced by Permanent Secretary Dr Douty Chibamba. The new board was then told to move ZEMA's permits online by December. On Tuesday, the policy think tank Action Institute for Policy Analysis Centre said in Lusaka that regulators should be strengthened and not undermined, after reports that the minister had suggested ZEMA could be dissolved if it failed to stop mining pollution. Its Executive Director, Solomon Ngoma, said he hoped the remarks were made out of frustration and not as a serious policy position. He called for due process and lawful action as directors were reported to be going on leave, and urged the new board to stay within its statutory role and leave day-to-day management to staff. ## Why it matters