FDD President Edith Nawakwi has urged workers to play their part by ensuring that they commit themselves to their work.
In her sympathetic Labour day Message released to the media, in which she highlighted the tough conditions faced and endured by workers, Ms nawakwi said that the country did not want a bunch of employees who waste man-hours chatting on Facebook and WhatsApp.
Ms Nawakwi further called for a dedicated workforce that did not misapply themselves and steal from their clients and employers.
Below is the her  full Message
This year’s Labour Day celebrations come at a time when most of our workers are stressing under the burden of a crunching economic meltdown. The cost of living is on the rise. Prices of essential goods and services are skyrocketing far beyond the reach of most. The Kwacha has lost its value,further eroding the purchasing power of our workers’ money.
People are paying twice or even thrice for the same amount of goods they used to buy at lower prices barely a year ago. Most of our workers, public workers, at the most are surviving on kaloba and pay slow. Most of them cannot afford to basic stuff such as relish, clothes, beddings or perfume on cash basis, they rely on pay slow or credit.
The interest rates are too high, making the repayment of loans/kaloba for most of our workers even more costly. Many workers are taking home almost nothing as the huge chunk of their salary goes to kaloba and taxes. While prices of essential goods are ever on the rise, salaries of most employees are stagnant. In the last two years, civil servants have endured the regress of a wage freeze that the PF Government unilaterally imposed on them.
Many workers starting from the police, teachers, miners, janitors to doctors are working in very difficult conditions ranging from shortage of implements, shortage of manpower to shortage of transport and accommodation. In short, the bulk of our workers are demotivated, burdened and poor. They are simply getting by.
Of late we have seen a sad phenomenon of threats and victimisation of civil servants by those holding political office. The Republican President himself has been in the forefront issuing threats and intimidating public service workers on mere suspicions that such individuals belong to opposition political parties. A lot of people have lost jobs, others have been transferred to the remotest areas of our country on suspicion that they sympathise with the opposition.
The workers plight has been worsened by the loss of thousands of jobs due to the energy crisis and our shrinking economy. The social security of most of our workers is not guaranteed. We have people who were retrenched or who retired a decade ago who are still fighting to get their benefits. Many retirees have been reduced to destitutes and are dying from depression without enjoying the fruit of their labour.
Going forward we need to improve the conditions of service of our workers. Lift the wage freeze and devise a clear system of bargaining and negotiating wages in order to ensure that salaries of our workers are always commensurate to inflationary trends and the actual economic dynamics obtaining on the ground.
There is need to invest in training and retraining of our workforce so that they can acquire the necessary skills and competence needed in order to improve efficiency and productivity. We need to motivate our workers and maximise their potential by giving them better salaries and the necessary tools they need for their work.
I want to emphasise that workers must also do their part by ensuring that they commit themselves to their work. We don’t want a bunch of employees who waste man-hours chatting on Facebook and WhatsApp. We equally don’t want workers that misapply and steal from their clients and employers. We call for a dedicated workforce.
There is need to strengthen the inspectorate role of the state to monitor and evaluate the efficiency and conditions of our workers.
We need to professionalise the civil service and weed it off of unqualified cadres. We need to learn to respect professionals and stop using political power to instil fear and impose programs. Let us learn to allow the technocrats to do their work without political interference and machinations. We get the best results when we allow professionals to do their job in an uninhibited manner.
As FDD we believe that money for retirees should be factored in the budget a year in advance before someone retires so that they get their money immediately they formally retire.
However, there will be no significant or meaningful improvement that in the lives of our workers if we can’t fix the economy. We need to deal with the fiscal deficit, account deficit, energy deficit and the trade deficit. We need to invest in training and retention of our our best minds. Also we need to fix the moral and intellectual deficit.
May God the Zambian workers. May God bless Zambia.
Edith Nawakwi FDD President
And UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema released the following Message for Workers on Labour Day
OFFICIAL STATEMENT
My fellow Zambians, let us join together and celebrate Labour Day!
A time to celebrate and give thanks to all those who work tirelessly to make this nation great and provide for their families. As Martin Luther King Jr once said ‘No work is insignificant. All labour that uplifts humanity has dignity and importance and should be undertaken with painstaking excellence.’
As many of you will know, I personally hold the values of hard work and dedication very close to my heart and that is the widely shared vision in our UPND. It is only through these that true success is possible and that we can bring an end to poverty and inequality in our country.
Times are tough at the moment and we are in a situation today where many workers are not receiving sufficient reward for their labour, they fear for their jobs or in fact they cannot find work at all. This is impacting our youths in particular and we urgently need to tackle unemployment head on so that we do not let a whole generation down.
As President of the UPND, I am fully committed to empowering Zambians and this means creating an economic environment for more jobs, providing greater protection of workers rights, reforming education so it equips students with employable skills and business know-how.
We also wish to provide the right environment for entrepreneurs to flourish. This will be done by opening up access to credit, sponsoring training initiatives and cutting back red tape to start business. We will also ensure stable and predictable economic policies.
Today we thank all those that work hard to provide us with our food, water, power, roads, healthcare and education and so much more. However, we should also recognise that we deserve better and we can do better with the right government and the right leadership.
God bless you all.
Hakainde Hichilema
President of the UPND
Its true…most Zambian working class use company computers to look for sex or patners on adult sites… i have seen a lot of working class Zambian women’s profiles looking for rich white men to marry or Zambian working class men looking for sex.
Seems that MOST Zambian working class women these days are looking for more money in their handbags in foreign men, especially if the men are white.
Why not simply disable the internet on work computers!!
But Edith is romantic, times are tough that workers are surviving on Kaloba & Pay-slow , to buy PERFUME.
How can perfume be on list of basic necessities?
@Nostradamus
this tribalism now!!,,, Lusaka times does not publish Nevers Mumba`s labour message because he is bemba, as for Edgar lungu, well! we all know he was out last night, so he is hanging over, his labour message will come out on tuesday
Zambians have always been lazy. They spend 95% of the time socializing at work and 5% working especially government workers. And when God forbid they start working for private companies who respect time and hard work, they start complaining of being abused. That’s why the country is dirty and impoverished. And you wonder why foreigners come in and get rich in 2 years while you wait for the government to tell you to get off your lazy a$$es.
My job involves the net but my company is clever enough to block whatsapp, YouTube, Twitter, snapchat and all dating websites. If you want to use your phone, you use it on your break not on company time.
NAWAKWI, CAN BE VERY SENSIBLE AT TIMES. IT CAN NEVER BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH THAT IN ZAMBIA BEFORE MOBILE PHONES WOMEN USED TO SPEND MORE THAN HALF OF THE TIME AT WORK TALKING ON COMPANY PHONE ABOUT LAST WEEKENDS KITCHEN PARTY AND PLANNING FOR THE NEXT KITCHEN PARTY PLUS GOSSIPING. MEN ALSO USED MOST OF THE TIME ARRANGING MAKWEBO OR OUTSIDE BUSINESS FOR EXTRA MONEY USING COMPANY TIME AND PHONE. NOWADAYS IN ZAMBIA, ALL WORKERS SPEND MORE THAN HALF OF COMPANY TIME UN PRODUCTIVELY, ON WhatsApp, Facebook and emails. NO ONE IS BOTHERED ABOUT COMPANY TIME AND YOU FIND THESE MEN AND WOMEN VERY RUDE TO TALK TO IN OFFICES.
Nawakwi’s message looks more honest and sincere and a mark of a true leader. HH’s message looks like cut a pasted from a western Economic TextBook. very shallow and not coming from his heart, but blind desperation to get to Statehouse
Comment: exactly my observation. Nawakwi is showing true understanding in regard to theme…it’s not good to talk off line when you have only to concentrate on thing that can build the readers understanding centering on the subject. issues of unemployment have got nothing to do with labour day…yes there is unemployment but it good to address the theme at hand and sorrounding challenges.
@Chanda
It’s the values HH is espousing that act as catalysts to development. Neglect them and you have yourself a formula for failure. All successful economies and almost all of them are in the west vigorously apply these values and look where they are! The crackpot and lunatic communistic and socialist economic formulas, whick KK worshiped and implemented in Zambia has been abandoned by it’s own proponents in favour of western economic values and where is China and Russia now? These two were more prominent in championing policies that never worked or could ever work. We must always strive to learn from past mistakes.
Chanda, you are the one that is blind.Probably HH s message touched a cord in your nerves. Give credit where it is true. You are one of those that is paid to be a blogger so you do not know what hard work is.
Kabili tulamweba ati experience matters but u thinks its a joke. Edith was a minister and she understands how a country is managed. HH is always theoretical. You will be very disapointed If you make a mistake of puting in state house. Are u aware that him and GBM have seriouse business plans to take over one of the mines. There interest is not about Zambia but to become richer. Watch out!!!
“We also wish to provide the right environment for entrepreneurs to flourish. This will be done by opening up access to credit,”
ALABEJA MUSANKWA CHITOMBWA. NO GOVERNMENT CAN DO THE ABOVE WITHOUT FIRST LAYING NECESSARY INFRASTRUCTURE. UNLESS, HE IS SAYING THAT AFTER 50 YEARS WHEN PF HAS DEVELOPED ALL THE INFRASTRUCTURE IN THE COUNTRY TO THE FULL. OTHERWISE FOR NOW, “ICINTU CINTU MWENE”. ECL AND PF AZAZA.
Why is HH’s message not headlined on its own? Is it now illegal to say this is a message to workers from the President of UPND, HH? So Nawakwi is being covered more favourably than HH becoz she is not a threat to the throne. By so doing u are actually campaigning for HH . People are not naive and can clearly see yr bias.
There is very little going for Zambian employees’ purpose especially that they have been largely casualized and mostly disincentivised. Our economy still gives an employee the idea that they do need something extra to live a “sustained” life (here I mean to afford decent shelter according to their station, food for the whole month, a little saving if they are not overly partying, and enough to entertain themselves and their families occasionally). Are you surprised that a lot of female employees quit work when they find a partner or get pregnant and therefore force the man to take over their fantasies??? Please address BOTH sides. FaceBook and WhatsApp is just part of a bigger story.
The UPND message is also based on half-truths. First off we need honesty if enterpreneurship that you tout as the panacea is to work. I have tenants who bolt and disappear into the deep night when they fail to own up to arrears. How do you expect me as an enterpreneur to “flourish” in such a climate? Add to that the fact that even those who pick mushroom will never tell you their mushroom is not good or how you can prepare such bad wares. They will not say the fresh groundnuts they are selling are actually ex-dry (that is, they soaked the dried nuts in water for a few days before running to the road to sell screaming “FRESH”). We need to give hope to our populations, not hollowed out half-truths.
We have lived on hope and it is worn thin now. Do you want HH to give false promises like the current government is doing now? So you tenants skip off to avoid paying you rentals due? what has it got to do with anyone but you and your poor contracts or lack of them.
@kubweka, my bad, the story is bigger than the sound bite you are trying to foist into the arena to cheapen my bigger picture. Trust me all arrears have been scrapped off the tenants to the extent that you feel sorry for them in the end BUT my point is that intrinsically it is NOT the leader who makes the nation but a collective shaping of a society’s fabric. I do not know where we have lost it but understand if the leadership vying for office (including those in office) do not address the FUNDAMENTALS their speeches and statements will always come out half-baked. THAT IS MY POINT SIR/MADAM.
No worker spends time on What’s app and Facebook ba FDD president.We only do those things when accessing our organisation’s email.It z an E World madam.Stop deameaning us the workers.No political party or individual can do without internet your statement z shallow and ill timed.
If you have a lazy president like Lungu whose main preoccupation is loitering around inspecting non-existent development projects then it follows almost automatically that the population will be lazy too. Unfortunately this deadly habit of laziness has affected most Zambians. It would take a proactive individual to turn this situation around and Lungu is definitely not that man.
FDD why do you have the coloures of the homosexual flag on your emblem??.
Meanwhile the utterly lazy bum Edgar is campaigning in far areas with GRZ resources pretending to be inspecting projects…he is no different to civil servants who use govt laptops for facebooking!!
You are also a lazy bum instead of working for your country you are demonising your president.Your judgement of Edgar is prejudice.All you see is a lazy bum,abram lincon said if you are looking for the bad in man,you will surely find it.So mr know it all what is your panacea to our unfortunate situation?
Very good messages from Nawaki and Hakainde.
Nawikwi noted but u hav failed to provide alternatives…hh is purely theory copy and paste speech. We are behind walk the talk. Rome was not built in a day or a year or in 5yrs but 40 yrs. Pf still have 35 yrs more …want it or not pf has come to stay
I do not know why but HHs messages never seem to inspire people except his own. I thought it was only me who thought so until recently when I have met many people from across all walks of life. They all agree that they think the same. They have gone further to state that in fact HH either tells lies or he does not know what he is talking about. But I think that he knows, he should know if he is that educated, so I think more likely he is telling lies as his sole objective in life is plot one, not serving the people but himself. Dangote for example serves the people ang gets a return on it. HH should just admit that politics was never his passion, he was just thrust into leadership of UPND so that a tonga becomes president of zambia. That is Ackson Sejani speaking and not me, and UPND or…
….. That is Ackson Sejani speaking and not me, and UPND or HH have never denied that, so it has remained official and come back to haunt HH for August 11.
Don’t worry….rest in peace since HH has support from ONLY one province and all Lungu has to do is only carry Muchinga , Luapula and Eastern provinces!
Plus PF has done extremely well on the economy, job creation, borrowing for infrastructure , corruption fight, no violence, engagement of stakeholders on ballot papers etc
HH is not a factor, concentrate your attacks Mr. Chagwa Lungu on Nawakwi, Cosmo, Chipimo, Muliokela and Mumba. Those are the major threats….NOT the Kachema Billionaire who everyone is talking about!!
Spot on Madam Nawakwi. The Zambian work culture is terrible because it lacks the necessary ingredients of targets and workers would not volunteer where target is the culture. What they want is face book, internet dating wasting their time chasing white men until they get old, whats up, stealing, trailing and making negative reports on those who are working hard. The targets they get from family bosses is to report on those working hard so that they can fire them & bring more relatives. The remaining time is bashing vehicles whilst drunk, drinking on duty, abusing employers’ facilities like computers, photocopiers making friends copies. Most foreign investors end up winding up because of property sabotage & stealing. Every Zambian newspaper, carries an advert of wanted person for theft…
Every Zambian newspaper, carries an advert of wanted person for theft from employer. This message should have actually come from the Republican or ZCTU President or the Church to show concern.
@ True Zambian, agreed, Such workers actually think that they deserve their jobs and wages as a right whether they work or not. And the sad thing is that other politicians don’t see this as a problem, the only thing that their eupyes can see are votes among these lazy bums.
Zambians are lazy, talkative and a dissapointment to themselves. This is why the country continues to underperform. Only the people of ba Lozi can claim to be hard working as is proven from colonials days when the whites only used ba Lozi peoples.
Easterners have always excelled the most in Zambia. This coming from a Zambian westerner.
I suppose Nawakwi is right in many ways, sometimes she comes across with flashes of good sense. Unfortunately most of the time she has allowed herself to read a script written by Mmembe. Now Mmembe has lost his value for political purposes, all that remains is attention seeking noise, otherwise he is nothing but a ball of contradictions spiced with quotations from the bible. Anyone who aligns him or herself to Mmembe is seen in the same light by most right thinking people. And the majority of Zambians are surprisingly survvy when it comes to politics, they are way above HH himself a fact which UPND is not aware of. Just look at how much ground HH has lost after his alliance with Mmembe, even the little chance he had for August is completely shattered because the majority of the people now…
Comment:workers have their immediate supervisors to ensure the workers they are supervising are working to the expectation. its not the duty of a politician to make that statement. If workers are failing to perform to the expectation then the employers should fire their supervisors entrusted with supervision.
your labour day statement mama doesn’t hold water.
By the way, this is not 1600 when there was no Internet. workers should be exposed to Internet to move on the same pace with cutting age technology.
During Nawakwi’s time, people used to spend time in bars and Tarvens on pretext they were getting information. so what is wrong with people getting information on whatsapp and Facebook?
The world has changed and people should change as well.
All politicians are on Facebook in…
Right now I wasted valuable time reading this labor day rhetoric instead of working my butt off.Most of the work is done on computers nowadays.White collar I am talking about.Take for example my friend jay jay, he drives a cabbage truck in the US of A,what time does he have to be Facing book.Senior citizen and Mushota have more time on their hands to blog because they are lazy house wives who just watch telemundo and blog all day.As for me, I am a qualified engineer and most of the time I use Autocad to design stuff and my laptop is my tool,I open Facing book to get updated on the statuses people post including well known politicians who are on facing book.Whassap is here to stay as evidenced by most of you wannabe presidents who interacting with your excited cadres.ICT is the new…
While Nawakwi simply acknowledges and ably describes the challenges workers go through,HH has sumarised it but concentrated of the Economy.HH is interested in turning around the economy.He has not codermed Zambians of being lazy but called them hard working but have been let down by bad PF policies.I also believe that Zambians can do better under a serious leader.
Hey guys, someone help me . Has Chimbwili managed to block ZWD.? I can’t find it.
It seems he has managed but use facebook or twitter accounts to access all postings
Spot on President. That’s what’s happening here at BoZ
The Headline is on FDD President Edith Nawakwi’s labour Day message to the workers. The Statement by UPND President, HH is inserted as a Sub-Title implying its not news or not important. Why cover HH thru Edith Nawakwi? Are u saying Edith deserves coverage much more than HH. Is Edith Nawakwi a running mate to ECL? I can smell a rat unless this is a mere divide and rule tactic.
Hold on in there Edith, 2021 is definitely yours. I ma’ coming in hot for ya! You got my vote. Edith 2021 😀
Do you understand what Nawakwi is saying?
….I mean Oswell and his friend former Man U fan.
Nawakwi don’t preach.
President Nawakwi is working, even helping small scale farmers.
Zambia’s current crisis is a story of failing Rains and the hydro energy crisis, world recession, which has derailed us temporarily. But we are not alone. See how Venezuela is fairing, Venezuela has Large reserves and a major world’s leading OIL supplier.
dailysignal(dot)com/2016/03/23/the-bizarre-reality-of-Venezuela-energy-crisis/
THE NAWAKWI (JOKE ) INFLATION REPORT
“We need to deal with the fiscal deficit, account deficit, energy deficit and the trade deficit. We need to invest in training and retention of our our best minds. Also we need to fix the moral and intellectual deficit.”
mmmmmm good so far. Then “Basic essentials like Bedding (?) Perfume(?)……..Deodorant maybe! LT is this a joke!
Main Problem for Zambia
-RAINS and Hydro Energy crisis
-Shrinking economy due to world recession
-Pensions Crisis (Demographics, larger Youth group than Retired group?)
-Ineffective, Lazy Private Sector(definitely Training Required)
We need to:
Boost our Output and improve GDP growth in these sectors:-
-Mining
-Construction
– Service sector.
-Manufacturing
-Labour demand and productivity
-Raise Self-employment
-Full-time and part-time employment
-Strong demand for labour has been concentrated in the Public a Sector NOT Private sector
-Public sector employment is too heavy over Private Sector.
The rise in employment should broadly be from industries, like Construction and Real Estate activities.
Zambian Central Bank’s MPC, FISCAL AND MONTARY POLICIES should target
Keeping inflation down to 2%
killing unemployment (Create/increase smaller, low pay, part time Jobs)
Increase Output
Our gov’t did do its best trying to stimulating our economy, when spending exceeded revenue, the government financed by borrowing from capital markets and by issuing government bonds.
HH’s comment was less an Economist than Nawakwi who gave it a fair shot, but tripped herself with the usual unwarranted attack on the gov’t.
Why does the Opposition in Zambia fail to assess Zambia’s problem fairly? Can we trust them to run our voucher try on fables? All countries are facing economic difficulties. Puerto Rico- near bankrupt, Nigeria, South Africa both have less than favourable economic outlooks.
Can we trust them to run our COUNTRY on fables? Certainly not vouchers!!
President Nawakwi has become a very astute leader.
Zambian Watchdog guys surely u have blocked. Iam missing u
Whether Hakainde Hichilema’s statement is sub headlined to that of Edith Nawakwi is of no consequence. One can not always carry a front headline all the time so as to be noticed. The bottom line is both presidents are covered.
Edgar Lungu did not need to issue any press statement beforehand because he preferred to pressent it on the actual day. Thanks LT for the news
Most African workers have bad work habits and live beyond their means. I was told a culture and benefits of savings.