Joyce Nonde-Simukoko

"The generation of today, if it was the generation which was there to gain independence, by now, we could still have been under colonial rule because people are scared of the unknown."

"We have labour laws, people must read and understand them and I tell them every day, there is no one who can fire you for saying the truth, let them fire you if you are lying."

"The problem in Zambia is that we don’t analyse and evaluate those aspiring for leadership. We only get excited when they tell us what we want to hear."

"My ministry had not received any complaints from workers working for Chinese businesses but would get details from Lusaka Mayor Miles Sampa on the Chinese companies that were forcing employees to stay on their premises in a bid to avoid them being exposed to the Coronavirus."

"If the current generation was the one that existed during the liberation struggle, the country would still be under colonial rule because today’s workers had too much fear of the unknown."

"Now if we are going to be cowards, then we are not going to implement anything. The generation of today, if it was the generation which was there to gain independence, by now, we could still have been under colonial rule because people are scared of the unknown. Now us as Ministry of Labour, we are not God; as minister, I won’t guess what is happening in Kafue, I am not a super human being. So that’s why relationships between employer and employee, the most important thing is communication, we should communicate to each other. So I am appealing to all the workers to know their rights and communicate to us, we even have a toll line now, we have told them they can call us on a toll line and tell us. If they are cowards, they should tell us that this is the employer and this is how we are working without necessarily them telling us their name, we have done all that."

"So those people have not reported to us, we don’t know the workers, we haven’t seen them. Anyway, for the mayor, yes he apologized and I think our Labour Commissioner will be getting the details from him but we haven’t heard anywhere else. That is also the only one we saw but what I am saying is workers have the right to report the employer if that employer is forcing them to do what is not in the labour laws. They have a right to report to our ministry or utilize the District Commissioners, they are there and they have been very active to help us on issues of labour."