SECRETARY to the Treasury Felix Nkulukusa says he is sure that the majority of over 100,000 applicants who responded to the health workers job advert are cleaners or security guards.

And Nkulukusa says there has been a lag in the recruitment process of public service workers, assuring that those who may not have get the job now, will get employed at a later stage.

In an interview, Nkulukusa said government did not have the fiscal capacity to recruit all the 64,000 unemployed teachers but could only employ 30,000 for now.

“We can all agree that there is a lag in this process. Our honest message was that the professionals in the teaching [fraternity] were 64,000 qualified and unemployed teachers and we are getting 30,000. That is our estimate. It means that there will be 34,000 who will not get the job now. Once we have this process, what is coming is those 34,000 that may not have the job now, know that they will have the job next time. So what is important is the commitment and the demonstration that we are doing. So there is a lag and unfortunately we do not have the fiscal space to recruit all the 64,000 and we can only recruit 30,000 for now and 34,000 will remain,” said Nkulukusa.

“For the over 100,000 health workers who applied, I am very sure that the major of those people in that number, I am very sure that it is those cleaners and others and not the actual professionals. Remember, there were [different] categories that were advertised, some of them are cleaners, security guards, among others. I am sure that the majority are those, because almost everyone qualifies for that job. But I have not looked among the analysis to say who among those is a professional and an administrative personnel.”