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President Michael Sata has called on both public and private workers in the country to be dedicated to duty in order to develop Zambia economically.
President Sata said the Patriotic Front (PF) government will not tolerate lazy and malingering workers because government was in a hurry to develop the country.
Mr. Sata said this today when he officiated at the Labour Day celebrations at Freedom Statue in Lusaka.
He said this year’s labour day theme of “transforming the economy through job creation, labour law reforms, better conditions of service and improved work culture ‘’ was in line with the PF government’s manifesto.
He stressed that full and total commitment to work from both public and private employees would help develop Zambia to acceptable levels.
Mr. Sata stated that transforming the economy requires hard working and dedicated citizens and not lazy employees.
The Head of State emphasised that government was geared to achieve sustainable development, increased production, and job creation for the benefit of the Zambian people.
President Sata said for the past one and half years the PF government has been in power, it has made a lot of policy changes aimed at improving the economy which the MMD government failed to do despite having ruled the nation for 20 solid years.
Mr. Sata expressed that this year, government has raised the minimum wage for the lowest paid civil servant from K1.4 million to almost K3 million.
He said the increased wages for the lowest paid public workers was also in tandem with the food basket standards as calculated by the Central Statistical Office.
And Mr. Sata has said many developmental projects such as road expansion, infrastructure development in the health, education sectors were currently under way across the country.
On corruption, President Sata has reiterated that government will not relent in the fight against this scourge which he said was a cancer to the nation.
President Sata said those involved in diverting public resources for selfish gains will not be spared but dealt with severely.
Mr. Sata said former President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda never entertained corruption adding that people should emulate him for tirelessly working for the development of the country.
“Emulate people like the former head of state Dr. Kenneth Kaunda who worked tirelessly to develop Zambia at a time when things were difficult,” Mr. Sata said.
He also congratulated hard working workers in the country saying they were part of the team which is eager to develop their nation.
He added that hard working employees deserved to be rewarded for their dictation to duty.
Meanwhile, President Michael Sata has castigated United Party for National Development (UPND) president Hakainde Hichilema and Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) president Nevers Mumba for wishing him to die.
Mr. Sata said he was fit and able to discharge his duties as a Head of State adding that it was inhuman to wish a person dead and that it was not a Zambian tradition to do so.
He said even if he died today, there were so many leaders of high calibre in the PF who could take over from him without leaving a vacuum.
He also wondered why opposition leaders who were aspiring to lead the country could fail to attend Labour Day cerebrations.
And speaking during the cerebrations, International Labour Organisation (ILO) representative Martin Clemson said although government has done well in some sectors of the economy, the issue of high unemployment levels should be attended to for the benefit of youth in Zambia.
Mr. Clemson said 90 percent of workers in Zambia were in informal employment, a thing he said was not health for the nation.
He said Zambia was among other countries in the world which were grappling with the high unemployment levels.
He said government should seriously tackle both macro and micro economic policies if the economy of the country was to continue to grow.
Mr. Clemson further thanked government for kick-starting the revision of the country’s labour laws.
