Patriots for Economic Progress leader Sean Tembo says it was fraudulent for government to get K520 from people who applied to be teachers.

In a statement, Tembo observed that it was insensitive for government to milk citizens’ meager resources.

“As Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP), we are deeply saddened with the recent development in which hundreds of thousands of applicants for teaching positions across the country were being charged an application fee of about K520=50 by the PF government, and yet less than 2% were actually selected and employed by the Teaching Service Commission,” Tembo stated.

“Such an action to milk desperate and unsuspecting citizens of their meagre resources by the PF government is scandalous, fraudulent, immoral and shameful. It must be noted, country men and women, that the ability to feel ashamed of one’s actions is what differentiates human beings from other animals. It is therefore regrettable that the PF government was shameless in its action to defraud and steal from poor Zambians by creating a false hope of employment.”

He demanded that the applicants be refunded.

“As Patriots for Economic Progress, we hereby demand that the PF government immediately refunds the hundreds of thousands of Zambians who applied to be employed as teachers countrywide and were defrauded of their hard earned money. The K520=50 must be refunded to each applicant with interest and an apology,” stated Tembo.

“As Patriots for Economic Progress, we sincerely hope that the Republican President, Mr Edgar Chagwa Lungu won’t instruct the Teaching Service Commission not to pay back the money to these poor applicants, the way he previously instructed Ministers not to pay back the money as ordered by the Constitutional Court.”