100 Sinda youths demand CfW payment

100 Sinda youths demand CfW payment 

By Richard Luo in Sinda

SINDA District Council says it is shocked to learn that 100 youths worked for the Cash for Work Programme without its knowledge.

Speaking when council officials met Ward Development Committee (WDC), Disaster Management and Mitigation Unity (DMMU), CWACS and councillors, council secretary Mary Chongo said her office was in panic to learn that over 100 youths had not been paid despite working.

Chongo said her office was undecided on whether to write to the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development about the unknown number of youths who were now claiming that they had worked under Cash for Work but had not been paid.

She said her office had a record of 60 youths who were waiting for their money and not an additional 100 as submitted by the Sinda ward development committees.

Chongo said a group of youths under the name Beula Youth Group resurfaced and claimed that they had worked but had never been paid.

“We are astonished that there are about 100 youths under the name Beula Youth Group who are claiming that they worked but have not been paid. And as the council we don’t know this group, we don’t know who recruited them and we don’t know who authorized WDCs to recruit these youths to give us this burden we are facing now,” she said.

She said the figure of unpaid beneficiaries in Sinda Ward had increased from 60 to 160 now forcing the council to start redoing the budget to submit to the ministry.

Chongo expressed sadness that a programme with good intentions to cushion the impact of drought had ended up being abused by selfish individuals.

“Why do we have separate 100 youths? Where are they from? The right thing was to be recruited from their respective communities or sections and not to have a special group which is now putting us in a tight corner. We need to write to the ministry for guidance on how we can handle this,” she said.

And Chongo was shocked that some of the beneficiaries who had been recruited were underage children.

“We are aware that some names submitted were not genuine. You recruited children below the age of 18 and used other people’s NRCs and mobile numbers. And you are coming here to pretend to be smart by accusing traditional leaders to be behind that for submitting about five names of their relatives, and who is at fault,” she said.

Chongo warned that if the 100 youths would not be handled well, government would suffer embarrassment.

“I am afraid that these youths we are talking about from Sinda ward if we don’t address them, they will damage us, they will go on radios and in the public to attack the government, to attack the President that they were not paid. Even some of you are politicians, these youths can damage your names and you know soon we are going to the polls. That’s why we want to seek guidance from the ministry on how we can address this issue of the Beula youth group,” said Chongo.