By OLIVER SAMBOKO
000 civil service employment opportunity is spread across to benefit all sectors including agriculture and the aquaculture subsector, the Small-Scale Fish Farmers Association (SSFFA) has demanded.
Government will next year employ 11, 200 health workers and recruit 30, 000 teachers to improve the delivery of service in the health and education sectors.
The proposed employment of the 40, 000 civil servants does not include agricultural, economists or social welfare workers among others.
But the association’s chairperson, Mr Victor Chatilika said Government should not only concentrate on the health and6 education sectors because other sectors are also starved of the much needed human resource.
He said the Agriculture sector and the Aquaculture subsector if well-resourced can contribute to the growth of the economy especially that the country is slowly moving away from over dependence on mining.
Mr Chatilika wondered why government has only announced that it will employ health workers and teachers in the 2022 nation budget, when it’s aware other departments, especially in the ministries of Agriculture and Livestock are also understaffed.
He warned that failure by government to strike a balance aimed at ensuring other departments also benefit in terms of human resource has potential to disrupt service delivery in other ministries.
He said as the country positions itself as southern Africa food basket as well as ensuring a national strategic food security, there is need for government to employ more extension officers that should be deployed to all provinces.
These, he said, should be included in the 40, 000 civil servants to be employed.