Maravi

Sata warns civil servants against laziness
By Abel Mboozi in Kafue
Sat 14 Sep. 2013, 14:01 CAT

GOVERNMENT will not tolerate laziness from its workers because their salaries are a great cost to the nation, says President Michael Sata. Commissioning Zambia National Service (ZNS) officer cadets at Kafue military training yesterday, President Sata said the government would not spare lazy workers.

"Government will not tolerate laziness. The salaries you will be drawing will be a cost and that cost needs to work for the betterment of this country," he said.

President Sata cautioned the newly-recruited cadets not to be complacent because they had been employed.

"This is just the beginning of your career, and my government expects a lot from you. Add value to the service that you have joined," he told the 136 officer cadets that graduated.

President Sata said the government considered ZNS as a strategic entity well placed to supplement government efforts in addressing the many developmental challenges that Zambia was facing.

He said the government was aware that ZNS had enormous responsibilities other than those of defending Zambia and key on the list was the training of youth in life-sustaining skills.

"The huge influx of the youth during the selection of this intake should be a constant reminder to the commandant that there are a lot of youth out there whom we need to equip with skills and create job opportunities for. I therefore direct that the process of opening up more training centres in ZNS from the current two is expedited in order to accommodate a bigger number of the youth for skills training," President Sata said.

He said the youth needed to be empowered with tools and resources after their training for the programme to have a significant impact on Zambia's high unemployment levels.

"The task ahead is obviously enormous and government is looking forward to partnering with various stakeholders to ensure that our quest to urgently address this problem is expedited," President Sata said.
He appreciated the challenges that ZNS was facing in executing its mandate to produce food for Zambia.

President Sata said the government would therefore speedily work at mechanising ZNS production activities to build its capacity to adequately boost national food security.

"I want to see a service that is able to produce food to the satisfaction of the Zambian people and the surplus exported to neighboring countries. I, therefore, expect all ZNS personnel, including you who are passing out today, to take food production as a very serious matter, like you do when you are on military operations," President Sata said.

He said the government and the people of Zambia had placed much confidence on the ability of ZNS in helping to transform the economy of the country.

President Sata commended ZNS for the works it was carrying out of constructing feeder roads as such a task would help in opening up rural areas for easy access to markets.

And ZNS commandant Lieutenant-General Nathan Mulenga said it was motivating that President Sata was the first head of state to commission ZNS officer cadets at a training school.

Lt Gen Mulenga said the officer cadets were ready to undertake any task assigned to them at national level.

"To the officer cadets, I must not be mean to tell you that you came to ZNS not to seek employment; rather, you came here to render service to the Zambian people. In this regard, as a cornerstone of your service and anchor to a successful career, loyalty, patriotism, non-partisanship, hard work, dedication, commitment, discipline, further integrity and valour should form part of your chemical makeup," he said.

Lt Gen Mulenga said ZNS would remain steadfast in contributing to Zambia's food security by increasing its production capacity.

At the same occasion, commanding officer at the ZNS Kafue military training Nixon Beenzu said the officer cadets had been molded in such a manner that they would perform their duties according to the expectations of the service and the whole country.

Labels: CIVIL SERVICE, MICHAEL SATA, WORK ETHIC

posted by MrK @ 5:40 PM