Government has been urged to engage the private sector to strategize on how to effectively address youth unemployment in the country. Governance activists, Bonny Tembo said that job creation alone is not a lasting solution hence the need to involve the private sector in finding the lasting solutions.
Mr. Tembo told QFM that it is a fact that the military sector alone cannot absorb all unemployed youths in the country. He has since called on the ministry of youth and sport to be proactive as it searches for solution to the high youth unemployment levels in the country.
[pullquote]Mr. Tembo told QFM that it is a fact that the military sector alone cannot absorb all unemployed youths in the country.[/pullquote]
Mr. Tembo has also called upon politicians to desist from politicizing youth unemployment. He said that if the politicians have no tangible solution to offer, it is better they keep quiet instead of voicing out unnecessarily.
Mr. Tembo notes that the former ruling MMD should even take the blame for its failure to create jobs for young people in the 20 years it was in office. He said that the Patriotic Front government inherited a jobless country hence the need to offer tangible solutions.
The former Anti-Voter Apathy Project executive director has also urged youths in the country to be strong and focused as they search for economic empowerment.
youth employment can be created if the government is really serious about these issues. in the mining sector, there are a lot of these Indians and Chinese people doing jobs that can be done by Zambians, eg crane operators, welders, fitters, bricklayers etc. The same government talking about job creation are the ones who issue these *****s with work permits. you have to be serious
Mr Tembo, can you please leave MMD out of this. You can’t be encouraging these Kaponyas to continue wallowing in the blame game of the MMD.
Lets get this straight. MMD did not create youth employment and the youths turned up in large numbers and voted MMD out of power. MMD got punished for their part. PF is now the establishment and they can’t keeping knocking MMD as if MMD is still in power.
PF Â promised the youths that jobs creation was so easy and they could do it in 90 days and guess what , the youths believed them and punished MMD. So quit this blame game and get to work. MMD has had its punishment dished out. What is the point in beating a dead Dog?
Even if you continously lick the MMD’s a**, you have got to give the PF at least sometime to put their action plans through. We gave you the MMD at least 10 years of tighten your belts of the 20 you were in power and yet you got worse and worse. That’s why you are trying so hard to make sure the PF does not succeed in anything because truth be told, there are still a whole bunch of MMD sympathisers in key positions across the entire country ensuring that this happens. All we ask as zambians is to give the new government even a quarter of the time we gave you after 1991. The country stands to lose if we do not work together. Do not let your hatred for fellow zambians confuse your objectivity.
tembo that is not the way it work. these PF chaps should take responsibility for the unemployment-let them show at least a plan to solve the problem even when they are not actually solving. they promised jobs so let the do it. so far they have shown no real plan to solve the problem. i remember bob sichinga promising 5.5 million jobs.Â
I hope you still have their manifesto. Yes Robert Sichinga as part of the PF government promised us 5.5 million jobs. But then, why are you putting in spanners by deliberately trying to derail the plans the PF are putting in place by not allowing them to implement these plans. All you have been doing is continue crying us babies after your defeat. We gave you as a country 20 years. Give the PF 2 years and see what they will do because even developed nations are slowly beginning to give them respect. Don’t be a frustrated MMD members, unless you were a beneficiary, then I will understand.
Sata has been in UNIP, MMD, and now PF, he is is part of the regimes that contributed to the downfall of the country. He is clueless, he is bootlicking chinese and Indians at the expense of Zambians and now thinks the fix to unemployment is pumping money into the military so they can hire more soldiers. he is an ***** of a president.
Tembo is right. MMD should be the last to comment on this issue. Infact they should keep quiet! A 20 year old, born in 1991 when MMD started ruling needs a job today! All they knew is private sector driven bla bla bla, investors bla bla bla. But we have no right to force an investor to come. Let alone determine how many he can employ. Yet we can force ourselves to create farms, ban salaula to create textiles.
you got you facts wrong. by 1990 the country was bankrupted. bankrupt you  read CSO reports.15 year prior to this there was no jobs created even by the parastatals. during the ftj era zambia was loosing more jobs than it was creating. the last 7 years the economy was creating more jobs than it was loosing. read CSO reports.
to show that your thinking is in the wrong place, that salaula is detrimental to the clothing industries, thats why you don’t see it in organised countries in africa. and more importantly private sect is the way to go.look at any progressive nation
I agree with you on most things Global Citizen except that the country was bankrupt. The western community by virtual of Super ken supporting the liberation of southern africa, punished us indirectly. We had no imports or exports flowing into and out of the country, hence we started having shortages way back as far as the early 80’s except Dr kaunda would always go back to ZCCM and have government employees paid using money mean’t for the buying and repairing of mining equipment. At the time Chiluba took office and I was part of the project team studying the life span of our ore bodies, KDMP alone had a life span of over 500 years in ore body. We were not bankrupt, we still had the raw materials the world needed serve for the punishment of helping our neighbours.
mukanwa bati..atase..pf has failed to deliver on its own..not MMD!!
On what planet does Mr.Tembo live?How on earth can he say “don’t Politicise unemployment”?Does he NOT KNOW that unemployment is one of the biggest POLITICAL ISSUES IN EVERY COUNTRY?,one of the issues on which a political party can win or lose elections?Was it not one of the issues on which the PF ran their election last year?
In the USA right now,the Republican Party nominee for president,Mitt Romney,is basing all his campaign on how he can create more jobs than Obama and bring the unemployed number of people down.So Bonnie Tembo should not speak just because he has a forum.Let him speak facts.He knows the political set up in our country is such that the opposition CAN NOT influence anything of change,short of the discontent of 1991 and 2011..UNIP to MMD to PF.
Tembo do not forget that PF leadership are part to blame for being part of MMD some of them even stole from MEZARF Housing project and slaughtering of pigs. So the blame should not be on MMD only in fact, MMD created a lot of jobs which PF cadres benefited look at the mines, hospitals, schools just to mention a few that MMD managed to build and create its massive. PF will never create jobs in their tenure of office. They are still opposing to themselves to what they promised people. They are even insulting the same people who voted for them. Shame on CNP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bonny Pono wabe tole we mwana wa mbwa we. Why should we as opposition not politicise joblessness? You as Poor Fools (PF) politicised everything ba Chimbwi No Plan imwe. The youth will punish you the way they punished MMD and we shall ensure we help them do that.
The fact is PF took over government without ideas about how to run a country and an economy. They used to watch from outside when MMD was in power and they thought it is easy. Look what’s happening now. Even the president Sata is now talking like a mad man, completely confused. The other day Sata was having a go at George Kunda who is dead; in Chama Sata was busy embarrassing himself; now he is embarrassing himself in Livingstone to the point of forcing his Ministers to beg for votes – kneeling down. It is ridiculous. Zambian politics have never been that childish since independence. Now Sata is thinking expanding the Army is the best way to create jobs…what a daft idea. It is shocking how Zambians can vote for such a person to be president. Says a lot about the population itself!
youth unemployment was politicised by those who promised the youths jobs if they voted for them during the campaigns. What is Mr Tembo talking about?
Iam a degree holder and unemployed. If pf can’t employ people lyk me then they are hopeless. Come to think of it they are hopeless
That’s why you are unemployed!! It took you a while between your two sentences to make up your mind!!
Because young man, you are not adapting to the dictates of the environment. There are more graduates now that 20 years ago and if your field was engineering but you are offered a job in accounting, accept it. The problem with you kids of now is that you are too proud like you are the only graduates. The era of specialisation we were taught in secondary school (probably high school to you) no longer works. It’s all about multi-tasking now. To survive, you have got to live the chameleon. Adapt according to the dictates of the environment, not living in utopia. Ala ubulimi bwakale, tabutalalika mwana. You will continue being unemployed if you think the only job you can do should be what you went to university for. Unless you are a doctor of medicine. Simple advice kiddo.
13 million Zambians today, so few people who should be swimming in honey, eating as many eggs as they can per day, so many fruits they want per day, three square meals plus snacks per day, travelling on decent roads and railway networks every day, you name it, we could afford them in Zambia., if only …not  at the expense of the majority. So much copper underground fast getting depleted but for the little benefit of Zambians. So much wealth in agriculture, so much labour untapped. 13 million people only, but yet so many resources that they can’t benefit from. Foreigners come and tap from the country. 13 million people only. Who can plan, implement tactics and strategies to make these 13 million people only enjoy lives happily with abundant food and infrastructure.
“Mr. Tembo has called upon politicians to desist from politicizing youth unemployment.”
Then…
“Mr. Tembo notes that the former ruling MMD should even take the blame for its failure to create jobs for young people in the 20 years it was in office.”
Uh….. Hello, Bonnie?
Please try to make up your mind…. do you want to “politicize” the issue or not? Saying things like this only make you look like a skitzo.
No set prioties per zed even mp s kneeling down in this day and age what a shame and shame to the voters for having brought about this nonsence per z
Global citizen, if you are so happy about the last seven years job creation record why do we have so many youths without jobs? I don’t dispute the role of the private sector, my take is that we should not rely on it alone. And we can not use it to respond to an emergency like this one. It is purely the mandate of a govt to fight this. Banning salaula would pay for the cotton farmer, revival of textiles and serios.
In life one can knell down whilst in his heart he is standing. These are kelenkas just trying to put up a posture to win people’s votes. As for Mr Tembo, kindly don’t show us how foolish you have become. How can you say don’t politicize the issue and later you blame a poitical party for the same? In this case who is pliticking. If possible go to hell mr. T with your CNP. mUFUNA KANCHITO BABA?
Private sector development is a slow process that can not be relied upon to respond to an urgent matter!
Its unbelievable that some Zambians have the courage to invest hope in Mr Sata’s performance so far as head of state. The president is urging his ministers and other organisations to employ the youths. Who is supposed to create employment? Mr Sata does not even state how employment can be created. What a clueless man Zambia has employed. His recent and on going campaigns bear the most unZambian morals with it. He laughs and demins the widow- mrs George Kunda by claiming mrs Kunda is politiking while in moarning period of her husband. These words can not come from an elderly African man let alone Zambian. Its unheard from our Zambian morals point of view. In Chama he claims the people in Chama can only have development if they vote for PF. He forgets he has no PF mp in Southern province.
To Mr Sata southern province does not deserve development. May be Mr Sata is not sure if he is president of the whole Zambia. Its a shame Mr Sata picks individuals and speaks delogatory comments about them. Mr sata picked on Dr Mumba because he hasn’t enough hair on his head and likened him to a convict. He picked on sone to late George Kunda and Mutayachalo MMD aspiring candidates as unemployed. Today he made all his ministers kneel down begging votes in Livingstone. All this is an indication that the man is without plans in governing the nation. He is fit as a one term president Zambians have experimented on.
You are the guys who spend a lot of energy fighting Sata. You are the people who ask what the country can do for you instead of what you can do for your country. The President is not the investor nor the implementor of activities. You are. Some Zambians kupusa
Is Zambia preparing for war? When did we have a public policy to recruit publicly? what will neighbours say? who fights a war with soldiers today…a remote controlled drown will do the job of a brigade.
When Dr Kaunda created the then ZCCM, he had a vision of creating jobs through putting school levers and even form 3 and grade nine youths into skills training programs via the creation of trade schools. This mean’t serve for very technical jobs, we could train our own crane operators, mechanics, fitters, welders, you name it. Any job that is currently being done by these semi illiterate chinese and indians, can still be done by Zambians. Even at degree level, most of our former ZCCM engineers were trained together in developed nations with some of these MDs and GMs running our mining industry. We need to get serious about empowering Zambians. Picking up a spade is what our youngsters do at grave yards. So why let a manual job like this to be done by a foreigner?
And when ZCCM mean’t bringing in expatriates, it was the kind of people that could only do jobs that our fellow zambians couldn’t, not any jim and jack all in the name of having a lighter skin than us. As a child, we used to create and make our own radios so that we could listen to programs such as live commentary of soccer whenever teams like ba Rhokana United (now Nkana) were playing away games. Such is our abilities that have been shelved the last 30 years which we still have. Imagine kids in Monze coming up with a pool table created from just mad and bamboos and yet serve for the coin, it does work almost exactly as the modern one.
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Bonny if you have any bones then tell PF ministers to stop kneeling before children, its a f@#%k bulali not good habit. Sata did, and it should be PF symbol replacing ubwato.
Some people have too much inertia in their minds. MMD is gone. It will do you good to realise that and forge ahead. These youths are the ones who voted MMD out due to lack of jobs, but MMD keeps denying that unemployment is their legacy. In economics, you adopt expansionary measures like increased public spending just to absorb excess labour. You start stimulus packages to areas that can absorb more people..
So, be constructive and less antagonistic of the government. It is about the youth and not who is minister and what tribe they are. So stimulus packages say to importers of farming, mining, manufacturing equipment. Stimulus to tourism services like less licences and fees to start a hotel etc. Then public works; housing, drainages, roads, parks, offices etc, all meant to spur private business to thrive.
El classico, ceteri paribus, you identify potential growth areas. In Zambia, it is clear that agriculture and tourism can do us good. So govt ought to invest in opening up farm blocks seriously. Do the roads, power, dams and canals and throw serious farmers there! Build airports, roads to mfuwe and Kasaba bay, reduce visa fees, seriously open northern circuit to tourism. That is govt’s role!
In doing all that, the PF has added new districts. This can serve a duo role in terms of employment creation. 1. Establishment phase you expect construction works of houses, offices and later permanent formal jobs. 2. Later, with a Boma nearby, suppliers of goods and services come in as private sector. Like food stuffs to schools and hospitals, security, banking, telecoms, buses or taxis. All these must be promoted
@7 jacob: i agree with your sentiments but i want to add that the republican candidate in the USA has given the electorate a workable plan for creating jobs. my question is has our government given us anything besides the empty 90 day fib.
Can one PF cadre tell us their plan for job creation? More soldiers? We are not at war for pete’s sake!!