Give us bigger contracts, cry local contractors
…with vaccines in sight
ZAMBIA Association of Youths in Construction and Suppliers has called for formulating measures to enable local contractors to graduate to major contractors.
And the association’s General Secretary, Mr Tabuda Mudemba has also emphasised for change in mentality by local contractors if they have to graduate from being subcontractors to major contractors.
Mr. Mudemba observed that despite the government coming up with 20 percent subcontracting policy which was founded on the skills transfer and capacity building, most contractors are reluctant to tap skills from foreign contractors hence failing to graduate to major contractors. “As local contractors, we need to get the 20 percent subcontracts with a clear vision and mentality, then we will grow, this perception of thinking we cannot do what a foreign company can do should come to an end as it is deterring us from scoring successes in the sector as locals,” he said.
Mr. Mudemba said the association has embarked on several trainings to assist and sensitise its members on the need to ensure that they acquire the skills from the foreign companies as they carry out their subcontracting policy.
Government came up with a 20 percent sub-contracting policy that requires a minimum of 20 percent of all governmentfunded contracts such as road contracts awarded by the Road Development Agency, local road authorities and other government institutions be executed by Zambian-owned companies in line with the shareholding structure specified in the Citizen Economic Empowerment Act no.9 of 2006.
THE aviation industry is banking on the Covid-19 vaccine to revamp the operations which have suffered setbacks at the start this year after showing signs of recovery in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Fourth quarter of 2020 showed signs of recovery but that process has been affected by the new Covid-19 variant, says Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) General Manager, Gabriel Lesa.
Mr Lesa regretted that airlines such as RwandAir and Angola had stopped operations due to effects caused by the new Covid-19 variant.
“By December 2020, we were looking like we are coming back but the variant changes everything. We had started making headways but then this variant has come so it is taking us back again.
“But we remain hopeful. The year 2020 was very devastating but in the fourth quarter we started seeing a lot of recovery which has been disrupted,” Mr Lesa said in an interview.
He however expressed optimism that the industry would recover by end of this year as he banked on the Covid-19 vaccine.
Mr Lesa was confident that the vaccine would be helpful in recovering the industry as most airlines which had stopped operations would start working again.
“The only silver lining is that the vaccine will have some impact as you can see in the United States and United Kingdom are coming down fast so we hope our primary market for tourism will have the vaccine.
“If the vaccines continues to impact Covid-19 the way we have seen it so far, there could be positive growth towards the end of the year,” he said.
On the domestic flights, Mr Lesa said all the airlines were currently operating adding that: “The local airline are still operating even though the loads are not as good as they were.
‘It is just that a number of operators like RwandAir and Angola have stopped for the moment flying right now because of the pandemic. But we hope they come back quickly.”
HARARE - Government had started reviewing the process of evaluating the Green Job Assessment Model, an initiative that seeks to unravel economic and environmental challenges in the country through the creation of sustainable and decent employment.
The model is supported by UNDP’s Nationally Determined Contribution Support Programme, which assists the country to measure how green and climate policies affect job creation for women and youth, income distribution, skills development and economic growth, using tools developed by the International Labour Office (ILO).
The ILO tools provide an overview of the transition situation and potential at country level followed by quantitative and qualitative employment estimates for evidence-based decision-making.
Green jobs are decent jobs that contribute in the preservation and restoration of the environment and they assist countries in the reduction of greenhouse gas emission as well as supporting adaptation to climate change.
Green jobs are in line with the new National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) 20212025, which covers the dimension of the environment with the objective being to “ensure sustainable environmental protection and resilience.”
IN Bemba they say uwikala mumupundu eufwa uko shilepona. I write to agree with Juma Malunga on the issue of our big community here in Chipangali. It is true that leaders are born with good hearts.
Some leaders are unapproachable and for me, I do not even know when we last saw them here. It is painful that we live like orphans and if it wasn’t for people like Mr Andrew Lubusha chipping in and helping local communities, things would be bad.
Mr Lubusha understands what we are going through because he is with us. He is forced to use personal efforts and resources to help locals and especially schools and health centres. Transport is an issue because of poor roads. This is one area the government needs to work on.
How will we get our harvest to markets if roads are impassable? The efforts being made to improve some of the feeder roads are commendable but let other leaders also emulate Mr Lubusha’s efforts. Our eyes are open and no one will cheat us here.