Maravi

PF government should find ways of creating jobs - Rev Ndhlovu

PF government should find ways of creating jobs - Rev Ndhlovu
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Mon 12 Dec. 2011, 13:20 CAT

THE PF government should quickly find ways of creating employment for the unemployed youth who massively voted for change, says Rev Japhet Ndhlovu.

In an interview, Rev Ndhlovu, the former Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) secretary general who is now based in Kenya, said the government should provide more incentives in its national budget for industry growth as a way of promoting employment creation.

"There should have been more incentives in the 2012 budget in industry and industry creation because that is where we need jobs for those young people who voted because if those young people do not get the jobs, they will turn around again and begin to demand for change," said Rev Ndhlovu when he commented on the recently-presented 2012 national budget to Parliament by finance minister Alexander Chikwanda.

"I mean, look at Egypt, they demanded for change, Mubarak has gone but the military is delaying with the reforms, they are again demanding for change. So we don't want that to happen in terms of young people who voted still being unemployed, not getting the jobs, and poverty levels are the same. That will be a big scandal if it happens like that."

Rev Ndhlovu, however, noted that the 2012 national budget was generally pro-poor.

He said agriculture and health had been given a lot of prominence, adding that the abolition of the medical user fees were all progressive steps.

"Of course the issue of tax, even though people will only start benefitting sometime next year maybe April, but the political will, that the process has been set in motion is good enough," he said.

And Rev Ndhlovu has advised Zambians not to be caught up in messages of HIV and AIDS because the disease is still very real and passes on when people have unprotected sex.

He said Zambians should not relax because the infection rate in the country had reduced.

"We must continue protecting life. We must continue promoting safe sexual practices, we must continue promoting availability of treatment and access to treatment for all, we must continue promoting voluntary counselling and testing. There are still some individuals who don't know their HIV status and that's unfortunate because I keep saying that you cannot talk about HIV if you have never tested," he said.

"You must test and know your status but we must also continue to advocate for empowerment of women and particular youth so that they know how to take decisions for their own lives so messages on HIV, we must not slacken, the campaign must continue, the fire is still there, let us continue pouring water and any other means to enable us to stop this fire from destroying our people."

A recently-released UNAIDS report by UNAIDS executive director Michel Sidibe during an International Conference on HIV, titled "HIV Prevention without Barriers", revealed that in 2010, about 68 per cent of people living with HIV resided in sub-Saharan Africa, a region with only 12 per cent of the global population.

"In 22 sub-Saharan countries, research shows HIV incidence declined by more than 25 per cent between 2001 and 2009. This includes some of the world's largest epidemics in Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The annual HIV incidence in South Africa, though still high, dropped by a third between 2001 and 2009 from 2.4 per cent to 1.5 per cent," the report stated.

"Similarly the epidemics in Botswana, Namibia and Zambia appear to be declining. The epidemics in Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland seem to be levelling off, albeit at unacceptably high levels."

Labels: CCZ, JOBS, PF, REVEREND NDHLOVU, UNEMPLOYMENT

posted by MrK @ 7:03 PM