By Stephanie Kunda

FORGED marriage certificates are flooding the civil service because officers want to elude transfers to rural areas, the

.ZCTU

(ZCTU) has revealed.
The labour movement also observed that some genuine couples were being separated through transfers which caused risky behaviour and could increase cases of HIV/AIDS prevalence.
ZCTU vice president Manson Mtambo has appealed to the Government to quickly set up committees for the sole purpose of verifying such dubious acts to ensure people are posted to areas that need their services.
Mr Mtambo said in an interview that the rural population had for a long time been denied services in various sectors, because of people not willing to render their expertise and drive development fairly across the country.
“We as a union want to engage the Government ministries, especially the Ministry of General Education so that the problem can be sorted once and for all. Maybe by putting up committees to scrutinise the transfers and postings will help,” he said.
He accused some ministries of failing to act on the matter resulting in the trend to flourish.
Mr Mtambo said if there was a policy or way to identify the true status of marriage, it would help distinguish those that were genuinely married from the fake ones.
“Some marriage certificates are genuine, so if we can have a policy to identify which ones are true and if someone is found cheating, they must be disciplined,” he said.
Mr Mtambo said if someone had a genuine marriage certificate, the transfer should be reconsidered because some marriages were breaking apart, thus affecting families and because of risky behaviour by separated couples, the fight against HIV/AIDS could not be won.
Mr Mtambo said a healthy employee was very productive and that was why with the implementation of committees to scrutinise marriage certificates, there would be a less break-down of family structures.
He also said the ‘some of us’ syndrome was another factor that had seen professionals choking towns because they were labelled as ‘untouchables,’ when it came to transfers.
The Basic Education Teachers Union, Secondary Education Teachers Union of Zambia, Zambia National Union of Teachers and the Professional Teachers Union of Zambia have shared concern on the issue of transfers and called for a measure that would stop the trend.
Recently, Labour Minister Joyce Nonde-Simukoko said marriages should not be an excuse for not being transferred and that couples should ensure they remained faithful to one another.