The Teaching Service Commission (TSC) has refuted issuing offer letters of employment to teachers who have been employed countrywide.

In an interview in Lusaka, TSC secretary Zachariah Luhanga said that the Commission has not yet published the names of the teachers who have been employed, and a directive has not yet been issued to that effect.

This comes amidst speculation that some teachers had already received letters of employment.

“Yes, that I can confirm we have not published [names] because we do hear that some people are even getting letters in as far as the Commission is concerned. We have not issued even a single letter to those people who were picked,” Luhanga explained.

He further said that it was possible that some unscrupulous people are manufacturing letters, but insisted that people know the procedure.

Luhanga expressed sadness that some people are using dark corner methods and enticing people to collect letters.

“Names always come out in the papers [newspapers], and those picked go and report to provincial education offices where they pick letters,” Luhanga added.

And Zambia National Union of Teachers (ZNUT) general secretary Newman Bubala said salary negotiations for teachers started last month and are still ongoing.

“According to Industrial Labour Act, negotiations take three months, so we are within three months,” Bubala said.

He has since strongly appealed to teachers to stay calm as negotiations are a process.

“No one should track them [teachers] through social media or anything to the contrary, the truth of the matter is, we are negotiating all teachers’ unions and we…I think there’s a spokesperson to that effect, if there will be any challenge,” explained Bubala, who also added that teachers will be consulted at the right stage of the negotiations.

He also dismissed assertions that negotiations had broken down and emphasised no conclusion has been done yet.