Man arrested over ‘illegal’ employment agency

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 09:51:18 +0000

By CHINTU MALAMBO

A UGANDAN national of Makeni has been arrested for opening an illegal employment agency named Middle East Jobs and Consultants in Lusaka’s Kabangwe area after a search by officials from the Ministry of Labour.

Labour commissioner Chanda Kaziya conducted a search yesterday and Mark Gumla was found operating in his shop where he charges people K100 to have them registered for the alleged jobs, K350 for medicals and K5,000 to travel to Dubai and Qatar respectively.

Mr Kaziya said Middle East Jobs and Consultants was not a registered business because it did not appear on the list of registered employment agencies.

He said that Mr Gumla did not possess a work permit and failed to produce a certificate of registration or Zambia Revenue Authority documents to show that the business was registered.

Mr Kaziya warned all those who own illegal employment agencies that they risked being arrested because if they wished to run an employment agency, they should register first.

“It is better to go through the right channels of doing things because one risks being arrested for such operations because we are on the ground to get those who practice illegally,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Gumla denied that the employment agency was illegal as he claimed that the business had been in operation for the past two months and that so far 25 people have registered to be employed and that the certificates of registration where in the possession of another Ugandan who is the actual owner of the business and was out of town.

Mr Gumla said the company has been recruiting people to work as waitresses, security guards and maids in either Dubai or Qata.

A victim of the illegal business Loved Mweene said he learned of Middle East Jobs and Consultants through a Facebook page and decided to try it out not knowing that is was illegal.

“I saw their page on Facebook and thought this was an opportunity for me to work abroad as a waiter not knowing that it was illegal and I have already paid for my registration,” he said.