Maravi

Address unemployment urgently, Masheke urges government

Address unemployment urgently, Masheke urges government
By Selina Nyirenda
Fri 29 June 2012, 13:24 CAT

YOUTH and sport minister Chishimba Kambwili says the protest by youths who were left out of the Zambia Army/Zambia National Service recruitment exercise is justified. And General Malimba Masheke says the government should address the issue of employment with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.

Commenting on the protest by youths who were not short listed for the joint recruitment exercise at Lusaka's Emmasdale area yesterday, Kambwili said it was unfortunate that the recruitment was done without proper planning.

"I think in my opinion, the whole problem was caused by the department of recruitment because they knew that they wanted very few people but they went out and advertised to the whole world inviting people for interviews. If you call people for an interview, you should give all of them an opportunity to be interviewed, you don't become selective. It's unfortunate what happened yesterday but they had a reason to protest," Kambwili said.

He appealed to the Zambia Army and Zambia National Service (ZNS) to get organised and conduct a safer recruitment exercise which would not trigger riotous behaviour.

Kambwili further urged youths not to panic for jobs and that they should exercise some patience because the government was putting in place a comprehensive programme that would tackle the issue of employment.

"We have only been in office for eight months. We have to plan, from there we have to do feasibility studies then we implement and that would not happen in eight months. We are going to create youth farms…where these youths will be employed then later on become shareholders, and once these are established, we will move on to districts," said Kambwili.

And commenting on the mass turn out of school leavers for the on-going joint recruitment by the Zambia Army and Zambia National Service, Gen Masheke said such was an indication of how desperate people were for jobs.

"I am not seeing an answer to the unemployment situation in the country if government still depends on the military, ZNS, ZAF as a way of solving the problem when these can only pick a handful of thousands of young applicants leaving out the rest," Gen Masheke said.

He advised the government to consider implementing certain measures such as empowering youths in agriculture development.

Gen Masheke said the government should not be shy to work with whoever has good and workable plans because the issue of employment is a national concern.

"In 1991 when MMD came into power, it sold all the parastatal companies, now the number of unemployed people in the country has reached its maximum.
Its uncontrollable," said Gen Masheke.

And Youth Constitutional Coordinating Committee coordinator Mulenga Fube said it was unfortunate that jobs were only being offered to school leavers, therefore neglecting the uneducated.

According to Fube, youths who were uneducated as well as unemployed were a danger to society saying they were easily lured into illicit activities such as drug abuse and other criminal activities.

"A more worrying sector is that those who have never been to school are a time bomb," said Fube.

Labels: CHISHIMBA KAMBWILI, MALIMBA MASHEKE, UNEMPLOYMENT, YOUTHS

posted by MrK @ 3:33 PM