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Minister of Works and Supply tells Civil servants told not depend on salaries

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Mpika Central Member of Parliament Sylvia Chalikosa has urged Civil Servants to overcome the dependency on monthly salary and engage in income generating activities that will help improve their livelihoods.

Ms. Chalikosa who is also Minister of Works and Supply said this during a meeting with Heads of government departments held at the District Town Council Chamber yesterday.

The Minister said this in reaction to the announcement by the District Education Board Secretary ( DEBS) for Mpika that her district has received advance salary funds amounting to sixty Thousands (60 000) Kwacha for the teachers.

Ms.Chalikosa said that Civil Servants have a tendency of depending entirely on their monthly salaries to sort out financial issues.

“As much as Salary advances are very important in helping workers solve certain emergencies, it is vital for workers to be innovative and engage in some income generating activities,” said Ms. Chalikosa.

Speaking earlier at the same event Mpika DEBS Annie Bwalya said that her office will select deserving workers by next week to benefit from the K60, 000 funds.

“Salary advance will significantly help civil servants to reduce getting money from illegal money lenders who charge exorbitant interests on them,” said Ms. Bwalya

Ms. Bwalya has since thanked Government for the salary advance funds allocated to the district.

58 COMMENTS

    • David Mulemba u dont have to be at ur business whole day, even as we are talking there other people running successful businesses with the same hours ur referring to, so I doubt that can be an excuse completely

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    • David Mulemba even though that almost everything that the goverment has been doing is wrong,its not right to CTITICIZE EVERYTHING,DEPENDING ON A SALARY IS NOT A GOOD THING TO DO,THATS A VERY GOOD AND PROGRESIVE SUGGESTION

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    • Scrutinising this advice it means : Don’t go to work to do civil service duties. Go there to use the phones and computers for your private businesses. Government is no longer employing you to do your civil service duties but to use it as a starter for your own business. And somepeople are supporting this!
      There’s no employer who encourages his employees to do other work unless his own business has failed

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  1. This is shallow thinking. If civil servants are engaging in other activities 8 to 17 what time will they do their work? This is promoting poor service delivery by government offices. Government should just pay people livable wages. Then civil servants taught to live within their means and save money for investments that don’t need their constant attentions. Weekends people need to rest and go to church if they are to be productive Mon to Fri.

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  2. Only a failure will tell you not to depend on a job. Without jobs there is no money in circulation and most likely industries will come to a halt. That means no or very little tax being paid by people or industries. Thus a run down economy dependent on handouts and free stuff.
    Therefore, bupuba!

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    • Annie Manda these p people just don’t want to admit that they have failed to pay living wages to workers. Encouraging workers to do other things besides their main jobs is encouraging inefficiency and theft.

    • Christopher Shanda They should follow this pronouncement by reducing the working hours so that civil servants can go to work on private ventures. Civil servants are already doing what she is saying. That is why the civil service has been a “come back tomorrow” institution. These PF tormentors are so insensitive to people’s feelings. That Chalikosa is blinded by privilege. She should remember that there were others in that office she occupies today.
      These PF people have brought the economy to its knees and are now busy mocking people who are paying the price for their negligence.

  3. Then y go for work ai? Renumeration is money paid for work &/ service….. A basic pay should atleast take care of ones basic needs which include shelter nd food, we are getting mediocre services in most government institutions bcoz civli servants are busy with their side hustles??Nd you can’t entirely blame them bcoz that is what pays their children’s school fees while they patiently wait to retire nd have something to refer to as ‘Renumeration’ …. Soooo sad

  4. Advising Civil Servants to steal Government time to run their private businesses. Is that what a leader worth his or her salt should advise their staff? Does this Minister understand what it means to be a Civil Servant?

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  5. This type of advice can only come from corrupt suddenly rich PF ministers ….imagine you telling your workers in your factory who are on shifts not to depend on their salary and expect performance to be increased.

  6. The problem with pf minsters they think that civil servant salaries are social cash transfer, they forget that salaries are payment for the service you rendering. The people they should be offering this advice are those who receive social cash transfer and those you giving ma 12.5 kg of mealie meal.

  7. Sorry madam your statement is pathetic you are the people who are encouraging government and parastal companies to give employees peanuts because of such utterances. Why do people go to schools only to be paid ama change ati don’t depend on salary? The fact is they spend most of their time working

  8. See why the people of Mpika do not want this woman anymore? Was she listening to herself when she was speaking? It is foolish of a minister to speak like that. I know this is too strong but what she said was very shallow and shameful. Some income generating activities would be running a restaurant, a taxi, a minibus, gardening, running a bar, etc. If this Minister had her brains with her, she would know that any teacher engaging in other income generating activities would not be effective and efficient in executing his/her duties. On the other hand, a teacher is required to be at place of work from 07:30hrs to 16:00hrs and now tell that same teacher to do some income generating activities. Is she saying teachers should put more effort to their income generating activities and not teaching? This is what happens when you have wrong people in leadership

  9. You are asking civil servants to be dependant on what you have failed to be dependant on. You madam minister depend on your salary and allowances because you increased them by over 100% yet you gave only 8% to civil servants. Yes, you know that the salary for a civil servant is too small but you have decided to make fools out of the same civil servants. You will see. You who has failed to build your own house in Mpika

  10. It could be a source of conflict of interest for civil servants and other public service workers to run business. First, the opening hours are paid for by government. This means that leaving government offices during working hours to go out and attend to business needs can be problematic. Leaving members of the public waiting for civil servants to return from private business could be unethical. Two, the amount of money paid to civil servants is enough to meet basic needs of life, depending on the country’s GDP. If government salaries are too low, then it is better for the aggrieved civil servants to resign in search of greener pasture. Three, corruption could be more likely for individuals holding government positions. The corruption would be in various forms, including abuse of…

  11. What businesses are those? She is just encouraging people to be stealing ati Ubomba mwibala alya mwibala!
    They being for work as civil servants and not for extra work activities.
    Where will Teachers and Policemen get the time for other activities other than policing and teaching?
    Just pay the people fair salaries for the work they do and don’t give excesuses for failing them. You promised them more money in their pockets after all.

  12. The same people will tell you to concentrate on your job and won’t hesitate to transfer you because you are involved in other businesses thereby not putting more effort at work.

    Even then what time since you’re at work from 07:40 till 17:00??

  13. The comment from Chalikosa is that she doesn’t understand what a salary is meant for.
    She’s eagerly waiting for her gratuity ,reason properly before you offend the majority whom u rely upon for their vote.

  14. The only way for civil servants not to depend on monthly salaries to sort out financial problems is to empower them. Government needs to learn from countries like Namibia whereby when one has served for a period of 10 years as a civil servant they can draw on their pension savings to invest in something meaningful. It is also time that monies deducted from civil servants’ salaries to go towards pensions were being managed by private insurance companies and not only NAPSA or ZISC that invest that money in businesses that bring minimal returns to the companies such that employees are only able to draw on these monies very late in their lives. I wish political parties can make this a campaign issue on how best to empower civil servants.

  15. I thought this was a repeat article then I noticed the player is different, the message the same. First it was that Kapata woman… it is as if PF are fast running out of ideas. If someone does not do business but have formal employment he or she should still be OK. Most of our forefathers worked until pension without a side gig or us going hungry. Mwaziba ka?

  16. @kalok exactly what I thought. It shows this is what PF has agreed upon in some meeting of theirs. The new govt policy is use government offices for your extra businesses. I don’t think there’s a civil service anywhere in the world that has this kind of kleptocratic doctrine. The Zambian Civil service already performs pathetically and instead of fixing it the workers are being told to further neglect their neglected jobs! If you have been to UK you will see how many demands are put on the civil servant before he is given our tax as his salary

  17. Zambia’s economy to collapse mid 2021, bad credit rating, poor fiscal policies and chinese driven debt. The west cannot borrow Zambia money,and Chinese cannot give extra loans due to poor debt management. The country is ****ed!

  18. Basically this nitwit told people that the civil servants are not paid living wages. START STEALING. Lungu does that.

  19. Never in my life have I heard of a government or private sector encouraging its employees to engage in other businesses while employed. Infact in some countries you can get fired if found engaging in other businesses. You are busy encouraging civil servants to engage in corrupt practices. Please step down if you have failed to govern

  20. @PM you’re right. In Germany, there’s a strict seperation between civil service and private sector employment. They are even taxed differently and have different retirement conditions. Both employers pay well, so it does’nt even make sense to split yourself. In Zambia, it would suffice to improve the economy and the standard of living – that’s where the real problem lies.

  21. Dear Minister Chalikosa,
    This is the most irresponsible statement spoken by a Cabinet Minister. Some civil servants are very qualified and cannot afford even one hour out of their work place. For example, gynecologist whose services are required 24 hours. Imagine its your daughter in maternity ward and requires urgent attention then you are told the doctor is attending to her personal business to supplement her salary. Dull minister. Resign. You are pathetic.

  22. I serious conquer with you. these ministers brains are not seriously functioning well. I love their encouragement to diversify but they are forgetting that even them it’s the same issue, they are committed to working in their capacities cos their pays are so high and look, they get sustained by the allowances they get through these weird moves workshops ,I mean unnecessary workshops and all those which in totality results in them not using their minds well but utter words using their stomachs. please raise the salaries, if you cant employ people who u expect u expect to work for you, ninshi business ya government has failed you. stop suffocating civil servants , this is seriously unreasonable statement trust me!

  23. What the PFoolish Minister is saying is utter rubbish! Civil servants need to paid living wages. Any passive income they make is a welcome thing, especially for retirement purposes! Otherwise if they don’t get paid adequately, they will resort to eating from “amabala” (maize fields)…. and that’s more troubling for the nation.

  24. Okay teachers start businesses going to Dubai bring items who will teaching the children, this minister has no child that is why she said that

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