President Edgar Lungu has threatened to close the Copperbelt University and the University of Zambia if students at the two institutions continue rioting and causing damage to public property.
President Lungu wondered why students at the two public universities are the only ones always rioting and damaging public and private property.
He says it was unjustified for students to come from their respective homes only to destroy public and institutional property.
President Lungu noted that his administration will now have to put its foot down even it means closing down the two public universities.
President Lungu was responding to Journalists in Kitwe shortly after touring the Zambia Institute of Business Studies and Industrial Practice -ZIBSIP Hostels which have been renovated at a cost of 1.7 Million Kwacha.
He said that he was willing to meet students’ representatives but changed his mind after seeing the trail of damage to public property caused by rioting students.
And President Lungu has assured the public that whistle blowers with information on corrupt activities should come forward because they are safe and protected.
President Lungu said the 1.7 Million Kwacha spent to renovate hostels at ZIBSIP by the Zambia National Service-ZNS could have cost more if commercial contractors were engaged to do the job.
And President Lungu has urged politicians to stay away from institutions of higher learning and other similar facilities, to enable them run smoothly.
And President Lungu says he is impressed with the quality of rehabilitation works done by the Zambia National Service ZNS in the country.
Meanwhile, Minister of Higher Education Professor Nkandu Luo, assured the president that the rehabilitated infrastructure will be taken care of to avoid vandalism.
Just pay the student meal allowances and also pay Lecturers their overdue salaries, threatening to close the institutions doesn’t solve anything. But I guess benefit from an ignorant electorate.
This destruction of CBU and UNZA has happened under your watch, to the extent that UNZA and CBU graduates are finding it difficult to enrol in a Master degree at UK Universities.
Dictatorship at work!
QUANTIFY AND QUOTE – CALL TO ACTION.
How many Universities does Zambia have?
Times change. Sooner than later, one thing or the other would grind to a halt. Times come and go. I hate University kids who riot and cause havoc to public and private property. The act is uncivilized, backward and barbaric.Who does that?The moment Government will succumb to some unreasonable demands from University kinds, a wrong signal will be delivered. Make the same students pay for whatever they break. Quantify and Quote. If a lecturer is involved, cut from his or her salary, quantify and quote.
This lazy imbecile and his threats ….
So many sentences in this story start with ‘And’
Why? Examination leakage reporter??
A president who does everything to run away from his office and his bedroom to go and enjoy flights on his $80 million jet with drug dealer friends, drunkards and small boys while he is not ashamed to fire workers for asking for their 3 month unpaid salaries.
We must pay attention when the
Presidents speaks.
It’s important his messages are not ridiculed.
This is a good President we are talking about who reminds me of Mandela.
Thanks
BB2014,2016
Lungu threatens…, Lungu will not respond to insults…, Lungu ewakwata akasaka Kandalama dance dance dance, Lungu says even if there was a change in the election winner rule from 50+1 to 60+1 % I will beat HH, etc etc. What does all this tell about Lungu? The guy questioning the mental state can definitely vindicated by all these headlines in a normal State! There is more outrage to come. which we all signed up to.
Really Mr. President that’s the best you can do? No word of encouragement for council workers bit paid for six months, no word for lecturers who are discouraged and complaining. Just threats. Iyo kwena.
Politicians never learn. Your time to cry will come. Just like it did with RB
This is one President with the worst prioritizing and time management in the world…just look at how he spent the last 14 days; campaigning in Chilanga ward elections, three days in Kabwe threatening municipal councils, Joy riding in his new $80 million Gulf Jet, three days in CB…to make matters worse you would think his number two is capable of the role in his absence but we are talking of a 78 year old senile Great Granny who just celebrated her birthday.
This man is in the wrong profession …he is ill-qualified for this role he should have been a PS
Threats & warnings won’t pay lecturers’ bills or buy food for students. You have failed ba mudala.
Your vision-less policies of debt upon debt & theft is destroying our country.
Lungu behaves a if he’s not a beneficiary of free quality education at UNZA.
Sometimes I’m tempted to believe Mulongoti’s claim that this man is not the real Lungu, who was a good lawyer.
Just pay the lecturers mudala.
SH*THOLE UNIVERSITIES!
Really sad, Mr. ECL doesn’t know why the students were rioting. So his version is that these people simply want to destroy public infrastructure for no reason.
This is scary.
Close State House Bar instead of universities. Close some of the useless Ministries such as Dr Freedom Sikazwe’s that spends tax payers money for merely laughing and clapping for the president. Do not play with education its not politics.
Why are you targeting the students when the current crisis is on the unpaid lecturers at both UNZA and CBU, why can’t you address that and your Prof. Luo’s threats to them?
Because it is students who destroying property paid for by taxpayers of Zambia! The same students will then turn around and start rioting about nonfunctioning toilets, water lines, lights, windows/window panes, extra, on campus forgetting that they just destroyed the same amenities a few months ago. So how do they expect Govt to come up with enough funds to provide students loans/grants if the same Govt has to keep fixing and replacing property destroyed by these same students?
Rioting and destroying property is a selfdefeating way of putting your grievances across. It is like setting your own house on fire just because you have a dispute with your spouse….makes no sense right?
Dont worry Mr Yambayamba the Presidential Spokesman/ PF Sympathizer has come to answer your question!!
Yes Yambayamba you can temper with the thumbs up and down for all I care…we know you chaps ( Including JUNIOR) have free access to LT servers.
That now is the culture. It’s now the custom. Sad!
These are wasted Lungu Years!!!
What did Satan see in this thing?
JB
He saw lack of ambition and never questioned if he had competency to run anything…
AHHH NDANI AZANI CHINDA
The Problem with PF is that they have forgotten that they are in their second term and people are already fatigued with their misrule the way we got fatigued with that of UNIP in the 80s and 90s and later on the MMD. They are deluding themselves into thinking they are popular because they are winning bye-elections that they heavily finance with government resources. They do no realise they have become more insensitive to people’s plight than even UNIP or MMD. Instead of giving more support to first years, they chase them from universities empty-handed. Instead of paying lecturers their monthly dues, they threaten them with suspensions. The cost of living is really high and do not realise their insensitivity is what will seen them out of government.
I meant to say “instead of paying government workers”
Am I missing the point? Are students rioting or lecturers are on strike because of delayed pay? Or lecturers are also rioting? Where is the rioting now or he is basing his threats on historical events. If he was at UnZa he could have a rioter at one time. Rioting and protests are two different things.
The lazy man will talk about irrelevant issues but main issues like why his govt is broke…so he is now thinking of where to send this weekend!!
Students don’t and never plan to riot, the police officers who have pathetic crowd control skills cause the demonstrations to turn into riots. Students know they have the right to peacefully assemble and picket, so that maybe the govt can redress grievances affecting them or the country. Even if a students body applied for a permit to peacefully picket, ZP would refuse to grant and as always stating how they don’t have the manpower. If ZP could only apply the law impartially, we would never be having demonstrations turning to riots.
This is the single most reason why no political party in Zambia wants the public order act abolished, every politician says we need it but never saying why and always complaining why it doesn’t favour the opposition. Deep down they know students would…
Complete failure, there are no opposition politicians influencing things at the universities. Just pay the students and lecturers on time. Also advise Minister Luo to avoid issuing inflammatory statements that don’t help.
Destruction of public property is wrong and must be treated as criminal. As such, criminal activities should be dealt with according to the laws of the land.
UNZA and CBU students must know that there are many other universities in the country today which will continue to supply the industry with manpower therefore their closure is not going to create a labour crisis/shortage. Students dont dare government to close the university because you stand to lose on graduation time. If you dont like government conditions apply to other institutions and move on.
students who riot never enter these two institutions on merit. They find themselves there because of corruption and other dirty means. The ones who enter on merit will never riot because they know why they are there period.
Now you can see where nkandu luo’ s arrogance comes from. She is just echoing her master’s voice.
Those taps look like ‘state of the art’ taps and latest on the market. Must have cost a fortune. You can see the smiles on Luo Nkandu. Sorry iam being sarcastic!
If you ask Chitotela, they have very special and unique features…lol
@Mikayeke, your comment shows how shallow minded you are. If you went to a kantemba University that is your problem. Closing the two Universities will simply show how our government has failed to run eduction in the country. First try to see the root cause of those riots before making comments like a child. Don’t you find something wrong with our education system ?
Lecturer are not paid on time
No accommodation for students
No proper lecture theatres
You scrap meal allowances for students
grade 12 and 9 leakages everywhere.
The president should be honest with himself and tackle issues leading to riots. Just look at what the minister of higher education said about (UNZA & CBU) Lecturers, do you find seriousness in the minister of higher education ? Any country that doesn’t…
Wanya wanya takeka (A leader full of threats is empty and Ill-equipped for good governance and statecraft).
Ukusunga imbwa Mano (You need wisdom to be able to look after a d0g well).
No matter how big your fingers may be, they cannot be bigger than your nostrils!
Who has ears to hear, let them hear and understand!!
Wanya wanya takeka (A leader full of threats is empty and Ill-equipped for good governance and statecraft).
Ukusunga imbwa Mano (You need wisdom to be able to look after a dg well).
No matter how big your fingers may be, they cannot be bigger than your nostrils!
Who has ears to hear, let them hear and understand!!
Lungu is just trying to threaten the lecturers because they have not been paid…..this is indirectly pointing at the lecturers to shut up and not complain about their salaries….
What a shambles of a president…
@naked fact , truth hates.
I went to the same university you are calling tuntemba that refuse to be innovative and change with times. For most if not all the kids in university today, their parents went through KK’ s free education system like me and its time for us to pay for our children.
Please note that the free pint of milk we used to receive at break in primary school those days is an imposibility unless you buy it for your child.Same with school fees just let us get used to paying for our children.
Sounds crude but there is no turning back .
@Mikayele, you sound sober in your recent comment , I do agree with you when you say parents should pay for their children’s education. However i disagree with you on the call to close the two Universities due to riotous behaviour which can be avoided if things were done in the right manner. I would like to thank you for being honest by saying you went to the same University under KK. my simple question to you is, would you have managed to earn yourself the qualification you earned had KK failed to pay lecturers on time or if he had closed the University because students had different views ? In as much as I agree that parents should be paying for their children, but not all parents can afford to do that, again if ministers are failing to pay for their children and put them on government…
Mr President calm down n arrange to meet the students’s grievances instead of closing the Universities. Dialogue is better than one track decision. This is exactly why people want you to address the nation on sensitive issues
contid: sponsorship, what more a peasant farmer from Vubwi, Shangombo or Dundumwezi ?
From elementally school to university level students are not taught how to respect public and private property. Therefore, the Ministry of Education and Higher learning is to blame for failure to incorporate such teachings in programs. Example, most street name have been vandalized. Most student think the government picks up the money like picking up Masuku.
….no wonder Vespers death didn’t move anyone….. Its the I don’t care attitude… Kaili mine akali namoyo and doing very fine….very soon she will be hitting the richest woman mark in Africa…. Hope shes aware of what’s happening to Angolan Do Santos daughter….
@ naked fact .
We had Universities closed during our time because of riotous behaviour caused by a few students and that should not continnue today.
Universities must have the innovative capacity to generate their own income and sustain themselves .
Government is having challenges to pay lecturers , the easy way out for them is to close the institution at the sligtest case of riotous behaviour so they can mobilise funds.
That is why the intellectuals must by now have devised plan B to be innovative and generate income as an institution.
The grant aided status is certainly not going to run smoothly anylonger as it is already having challenges.Then what?
Closing of universities is inevitable as long as students break public and innocent people’ s property .
The UNZA and CBU…
Thug 1.
Kawalala……………………………………………..
And what about the man in charge of the ministry
Let him close. These things have not started now. They started way back in the Kaunda Administration. Let the government do their part by adequately funding these institutions and management at these institutions also manage their institutions properly.
Lungu is dull. No vision. No foresight. No analytical skills. Just a puppet controlled by all those around him. Bapuba bamudala aba.
The big question regarding the issue is;
What the hell is the minister of education doing about issues with Universties. Is it not the ministers task to dialog with those running these institutions as well as the students. There must be a reason as to why students resort to rioting. I am 100 % sure they do not resort to rioting because they have nothing to do.
Closing UNZA will be reverting back to the UNIP days
Please let us not agree to disagree, but two wrongs don’t make a right. We should be critically considering the plight of our own sovereignty, these institutions are in fact instruments to be used for the progression of our country. Point is something needs to be put in place to assure a permanent solution. One thing is leadership must realize that people are watching, hearing and seeing, so not everything that’s going on in our country is pleasing to all. Please let’s stop bickering and find a solution.
Threats should never be tolerated in a democratic society no matter what is going on. The president must desist from using threats as a mode of relaying information. It is particularly sad that even the ministers are equally issuing threats to disseminate information. If govt govt listened to students, lectures and citizens at large the people he is referring to would not resort to violence. So Mr president please start listening and learn to dialogue with the people to prevent them from rioting. Let us not be pretentious in the dispensation of democracy and rule of law.
We are listening. Now you are inspecting renovated hand wash basins. Look at the standard of what he’s inspecting. It’s like we are in the 1950s. Insoni ebuntu.
Let whoever is reading this ask the question what the real Root Cause to this crisis is.
Unpaid Salaries, for months on end!! A Salary for a worker is a Legal Right insofar as they worked. #PERIOD