PeP STATEMENT CALLING ON GOVERNMENT TO INCREASE SALARIES OF POLICE OFFICERS
Liberty House, 30th July 2024
1. As Patriots for Economic Progress (PeP), we call on Government to immediately increase the salaries of Police Officers because these already small salaries have been further devalued by the high levels of inflation which has averaged 15 percent per annum, over the past 3 years that the UPND has been in office.
2. As a result of their diminished salaries, most Police Officers are struggling financially and are not able to adequately provide for their families. In fact, most Police Officers look like they are unemployed, and yet they work for the Government of the Republic of Zambia.
3. As Patriots for Economic Progress, we wish to warn the UPND Administration that it is a national security risk to pay peanuts to persons who are entrusted with maintaining law and order, and who are mandated to carry firearms.
4. Additionally, we wish to attribute the recent high incidents of Police Officers involved in criminal activities including aggravated robbery and murder, using state issued firearms, to the extremely low salaries that Police Officers are paid, which have been further diminished by the high levels of inflation. We are now left to grapple with senseless cases of murder, such as that of the IBA Director General, because Police Officers are now available for hire as assassins, using state issued firearms, in order to supplement their small salaries.
5. Lastly, we wish to advise the UPND Government that instead of recruiting thousands of additional Police Officers every year, most of whom are just idle, with no specific work to do, Government should concentrate on improving the conditions of services for officers who are already in the Service, especially their salaries. Sound national security is about the quality, discipline and level of motivation of serving security personnel, and not just their quantity.
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ISSUED BY:
SEAN E. TEMBO (SET)
PARTY PRESIDENT
PATRIOTS FOR ECONOMIC PROGRESS
LUSAKA, ZAMBIA
So imwe Ba SET….does this money that you want government to increae Police salaries grow in trees?
Sometimes we have politicians that use other parts to think than their brains. We cry about thr general cost of living, and dont ask what inflation is and its effects or genesis. We want to run into the streets when taxes are hiked yet dont ask where the money to pay for the same increased salaries will come from. We want salary increases when we are critical that the standard of education is falling and it therefore costs more to have better classroom size, structures and facilities which need to be sustained from a stable resource base when we dont pay traffic fines or taxes and levies.
What I find ironic is that all these considerations dont come from a man that seeks the highest office in the land and sats he has ACCA. Ma accountant recall qualifications that fail to demonstrate the stature of you qualifications and you even call them “fellows”….yaba!
Ba Tembo, there shall be no justification on the use of govt weapon to kill innocent citizens because of low pay.If you ask most workers in Zambia they will tell you that they are not satisfied with the salaries they get paid so it’s not about police.The cost of living has gone up globally.Discipline is the key, one must not be hired to go kill a fellow human being so that they are paid some money.All workers need increaments but if that is not done one must not become a maderer.A hired man to kill innocent person .