Friday, March 29, 2024

President Lungu promised 500,000 jobs; Zero jobs have been created-UPND

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FRA workers marching in Lusaka during Labour Day celebrations
FRA workers marching in Lusaka during Labour Day celebrations

On 12th August President Edgar Lungu promised to create 500,000 jobs by the end of 2016. This was during the launch of the 2015 Youth Policy and Action Plan for Youth Empowerment. He said this should be achieved through the national apprenticeship and internship schemes which should create employment for the unskilled youths within the participating companies, as well as the expansion of low interest credit facilities targeting new and growing youth-led enterprises among other interventions. This was an absolute lie and to illustrate this point, since 2011 the PF has created 96,836 jobs meaning they created a paltry 19,367 jobs per year.

This is in a country where over 200,000 graduates leave tertiary education every year.

On 26th September 2015, Tourism and Arts Minister, Jean Kapata announced that the tourism sector in Zambia would create 300,000 by the year 2016. This was at the official launch of the United Nations World Tourism Day commemoration in Livingstone.

We want to be conservative and assume the 300,000 jobs Jean Kapata was talking about are a subset of the 500,000 jobs announced by the President. Whatever the case, as far as we are concerned none of the jobs have been created going by the LFS that Shamenda launched two weeks ago. To meet this target this government would need to create about 2,272 jobs for each working day for the remaining working days for 2016.

In a statement published on 7th October 2015, we questioned how the PF would attain this and as usual they responded with insults. https://www.lusakatimes.com/2015/10/07/hh-challenges-pf-to-explain-creation-of-500000-jobs-when-so-many-are-now-being-lost/

The question to ask is, did President Lungu and Jean Kapata choose to deliberately mislead the Zambian people? Both Edgar and Jean knew that the PF had no capacity to create so many jobs. If anything, what we have seen is massive job redundancies.

President Lungu has no vision. It is only possible to create 500,000 jobs in a year if one has a plan. We have consistently advised the PF to invest the money they have borrowed, such as the Eurobonds, in the productive sector but they decided to use the money for consumption.

Agriculture alone would create over 200,000 jobs if we invested in agribusiness and value addition.

Percy Chanda
UPND Chairman for Labour

31 COMMENTS

  1. Care with what Edgar and PF promise you. These guys have failed to deliver on anyone single promise they made. Life has become unbearable. Unemployment is rife. Destitution is all we see. #Lungumustgo

    • @Munene. I did not quite see your answer to the question! How many jobs have been created of the 500,000 jobs Edgar promised?

    • I suppose you’re Lungu’s relative, otherwise you wouldn’t have posted such a stnpid comment on here. Try to be less ignorant, shameless and insensitive especially towards folks who are losing jobs every day. Have a heart ewe mambala.

  2. UPND is a party for liars, the bible says say the truth & it will set you free 5000 teachers employed last year is it zero? 1000 police employed last year is zero? in fact he said by the end of 2016 the jobs will be 500,000 now has 2015 ended? abantu balemimwenamo nobufi mwakwata ba devil imwe

    • Check this website https://www.thebusinessyear.com/zambia-2015/come-give-us-a-hand/interview

      TBY talks to Kayula Siame, National Coordinator of Private Sector Development Industrialization and Job Creation at the Cabinet Office, on the advantages of investing in Zambia and job creation projects

      How many jobs seem set to be created by 2016?
      Our target is to create one million jobs by then, one-third or possibly half of which should have materialized by end-2015. Yet while we remain optimistic, this all depends upon the government and various stakeholders working toward the same goal with maximum effort and within a strong coordination framework.

    • Bosses! Take it easy! Before you get BP, let us state a few facts:
      1. ECL promised 500,000 new jobs by end of 2016
      2. Jean Kapata promised ANOTHER 300,000 jobs in the Tourism sector.
      3. Job creation is a function of a growing economy
      4. Our economy is currently CONTRACTING and thus losing jobs
      5. Upnd are in order to ASK how these jobs will be created. From their calculations (based on 500,000 news jobs), PF will need to create 2,272 jobs per working day for the remainder of the year!
      How many of these jobs have been created so far?

    • Actually he said by 2016 Mr. Liar. Not surprised with your comment kaili the foundation of your party is based on lies.

    • @Unhappy People Never Develop
      You are perfectly correct. What is shocking in all these tiresome accusations and illogical counter arguments by said Party that is lead by an Economist….is that they seem not to understand that the PRIVATE Sector is also duty bound to create jobs. Who is the Richest man in Zambia with successful Private a Companies, worldwide? YEP, HH. How many jobs has he created since he must demonstrate his acumen to become Zambia’s Next a President??

  3. sometimes people are critical for nothing, are we really sure that zero job has been created…..I just got my first salary from my recent appointment…. criticism for the sake of it does not help matters, indeed ECL and his team need to do more to offset the backlog of graduates that are yet to test the fruits of their labour at school.

    • Stop arguing with yourself. We are talking about the half a million jobs that Edgar promised. Has he delivered or not? Anything less than a quarter of the promised jobs is failure.

    • @ Oliver; UPND are saying “since 2011 the PF has created 96,836 jobs meaning they created a paltry 19,367 jobs per year”. You may just be one of the lucky few if you got a job. During campaigns, politicians always tell lies to the voters so that they can get voted into office. After elections, its business as usual and the same old trick is repeated during the next election. When should we take Govt to task over their promises? Wait another five years? Your guess is as good as mine. In most countries in this world, citizens take their Govts to task, Zambia is an extraordinary case.

    • Oliver simple logic, you create 15 jojoba and loose 20 ( answer is negative 5= Zero jobs).Simple as that.

  4. PERCY CHANDA, UPND CHAIRMAN FOR LABOR. UPND, WHAT AN ALL INCLUSIVE PARTY! WOW! THIS IS GOOD. IT IS ZAMBIA UNITE WITH UPND. FOCUS AND VISION IS FOUND MASIVELY IN UPND. ALL PROGRESSIVE ZAMBIANS ARE READY TO VOTE FOR UPND AND HH COME AUGUST 11. VIVA UPND VIVA! ZAMBIA FORWARD.

  5. Jobs cannot be created without attracting investment. To create this number of jobs, Zambia needs to attract between US$5 billion and US$60 billion in investment, both local and foreign. When this kind of investment has been attracted it will show. It will be visible to everyone! Very little has happened so far. That’s why employment ready youths are either at home or on the street selling scratch cards!

    • @Patriot Abroad. Yes this violence that HH has created. Such as invading the Airport in Ndola to prevent Miles from launching his party! Shooting residents in Choma! Throwing teargas at Nevers Mumba in Lundazi, etc, etc. Did I say HH? Sorry, ECL!!!

    • That’s not even including mulobezi shooting livingstone murders (note the the plural) Sinda beatings wit an eye gouge., chipata beatings and urinating in the mouth various radio stations including the one where your own devil Bwalya was baptised in chibuku. shooting at HH in Kitwe. The list goes on, are these the things you prayed and fasted for on 18th October? God cannot be mocked, that which your kind have been planting will soon be harvested by your lot.

    • @PX. Touché! But you misrepresent the facts. I fear we could spend the day counter arguing. My final comment to yours is merely to point out that the gov’t have been forced into those actions because of provocation by marauding opposition who refuse to accept democratically elected gov’t. Even here the gov’t has to put out marches and gatherings that get out of hand.

  6. TBY talks to Kayula Siame, National Coordinator of Private Sector Development Industrialization and Job Creation at the Cabinet Office, on the advantages of investing in Zambia and job creation projects.
    How many jobs seem set to be created by 2016?
    Our target is to create one million jobs by then, one-third or possibly half of which should have materialized by end-2015. Yet while we remain optimistic, this all depends upon the government and various stakeholders working toward the same goal with maximum effort and within a strong coordination framework.
    CHECK THIS WEBSITE -https://www.thebusinessyear.com/zambia-2015/come-give-us-a-hand/interview

  7. most up n down supporters are fools because they support anything so long it comes from their church upnd even if its wrong image even kabimba has become an angel to them

  8. BANTU BA MU ZAMBIA @Unhappy People Never Develop
    You are perfectly correct. What is shocking in all these tiresome accusations and illogical counter arguments by said Party that is lead by an Economist….is that they seem not to understand that the PRIVATE Sector is also duty bound to create jobs. Who is the Richest man in Zambia with successful Private a Companies, worldwide? YEP, HH. How many jobs has he created since he must demonstrate his acumen to become Zambia’s Next a President??

  9. MMD/PF join hands the votes are cast already we know the real winners and as Fred says Bantustan cannot rule a nation become all inclusive not for political expediency but because you have known your ills….cannot wait for August to cast my vote once again as I did in 2015 and in 2011…..bauze wina azalila

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