UPND Secretary General Batuke Imenda has advised job seeking party members jobs to be patient, saying they will be rewarded accordingly in due course.
Several members of the UPND have taken to social media to complain that jobs should not only go to people “with papers who never suffered for the party”.
Addressing their concerns in an interview, Imenda said the UPND government would create a strong economy such that even those who were not well educated would be empowered.
He said in such an environment, those without qualifications had an opportunity to earn more money than those with regular jobs if they worked hard.
“It is not just looking at people’s papers. We have a lot of opportunities, those that have got no papers will be empowered. We are going to create funds for those that have no papers. In fact, if they do things well, it will be in such a way that they will be earning more than those that will be going to work. Right now, I am with honourable Elias Mubanga who is Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, he has a robust programme which will accommodate all those people. We will create an economy which is so strong to the extent that even those that are not well educated will have an opportunity to be given jobs in businesses that will be created. So there are two options; one option is employment that will be created by private enterprise, the second one is those that may wish to have businesses, they will be accorded that opportunity,” Imenda said.
He said UPND would only accommodate almost everyone who had been with them in the “trenches” in its budget next year.
“So, for now, let them simply wait because the budget that we are running with right now is not ours. We are merely concluding the PF’s budget which is ending on 31st December. Our budget commences in January up to the end of the year, next year. Whatever is happening around now is the budget which was done by our predecessors, so they did not accommodate them in their budget. In our budget, we have accommodated such eventualities. So, it is next year that we are going to cater for everyone, we are merely finishing this budget which was done by the PF. So, it is within our budget where we are going to accommodate almost everyone who has been with us in the trenches. Please let them be patient, we really appreciate what they have done especially the youths, we are very appreciative and they will be rewarded accordingly,” said Imenda.
