Africa-Press – Zambia. A prominent Driving School has bemoaned the requirements for driving schools to benefit from youth empowerment programmes under the revised Constituency Development Fund.
According to the new CDF guidelines, driving is one of the skills that government wants youths to acquire Government has since set aside some funds to offer bursaries under youth empowerment for youths to learn driving as a skill.
But ZADAC School of Driving says the conditions attached to Driving School accessed part of the funding for training youths in driving skills are not friendly.
ZADAC Managing Instructor Bafana Moyo says conditions that a Driving School offering driving skills should be accredited with Teveta are cumbersome. Mr. Moyo said that currently, driving schools in Zambia are regulated by RTSA and that the driver instructor licence issued by RTSA is sufficient.
“A a few weeks ago, it came to my attention that government had introduced bursaries for youth empowerment of any skills training course and that driving was a skill included in the program. As a driving school administrator, I elated to hear this news because it meant the school was going to be a beneficiary,” Mr. Moyo stated.
Mr Moyo added that to his dismay, he was informed that the school needed Teveta accreditation to qualify as trainers on the program. He added, “it has come as a huge shock that we are now being asked for Teveta accreditation especially that we have not been given any notice for this but we are being left out of this very important empowerment program.”
Mr. Moyo charged that the requirements will disadvantage majority of driving schools. “We are dismayed because in line with our Republican President H.E Mr Hakainde Hichilema’s assurance to us –government will endeavour to empower local SME’s in their programmes. We believe that being left out in this way is against His Excellency’s wishes.”
He continued, “To worsen matters some of the Teveta accreditation requirements are prohibitive to most driving schools – such as schools having board members, an application fee of K9,000 and 6 months bank statements with a minimum balance of K5,000.00 at any time.”
“I am appealing to government to understand that driving schools are small enterprises that may find these requirements very hard to meet especially under such a short notice as in this case,” Mr. Moyo said.
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