Friday, March 29, 2024

President Lungu condemns UNZA students’ lawlessness

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UNZA students march to the South African High commission in protest against Xenophobic attacks on Africans in South Africa

President Lungu has described as unacceptable that University of Zambia students can engage in acts of lawlessness while at the same time condemning criminal acts in South Africa.

And the President is deeply concerned at the escalating violence targeted at foreign citizens in south Africa ,including Zambians.

The President says being from the highest institution of learning, students are expected to show class and exemplary behaviour to other youths in the land.

“I have been informed that they presented their petition to the South African embassy. How then can they engage in the same acts they are condemning?” the President asked.

He added that the students’ action are not only criminal but affect the livelihoods of Zambians earning a living by working in those targeted shops.

The President has asked law enforcement agencies to swiftly move in and address the situation.

Meanwhile, the President, as before wished to remind criminal gangs engaged in brutalising innocent people that their actions may cause the isolation of South Africa from the rest of the civilised world.

The President has prodded the South Africa Governement to do more to not only arrest the carnage , but to also bring the culprits to book before this xenophobia degenerates into full scale genocide.

The President further asks the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union to intervene in the worsening situation in South Africa as the carnage has potential to destabilise African unity.

And the President wishes to commiserate with families that have lost their loved ones in these unacceptable attacks and wishes the wounded quick recovery.

The President urges Africans in other States,Zambia included to exercise restraint and not to indulge in any acts of violence in the wake of these sad happenings in South Africa.

Issued by Isaac Chipampe
Special Assistant to the President
Press and Public Relations

48 COMMENTS

  1. President Lungu here is where you are wrong.
    1.You should have lead the way by voicing against the xenophobic attacks instead of waiting for the UNZA students to take charge ,seeing you were not showing leadership.
    2.In a time when Africans are standing in solidarity against South Africa ,praise the UNZA students for their stance and then caution them against damaging property. You need to come out like you are on their side not against them.
    3. You need to sound stronger in your condemnation of xenophobia: do something- like say Zambians will no longer allow a lopsided trade with South Africa. People would love that.

    • LT are you saying the POTROZ said that because Unza students delivered a petition to South African High Commissioner office?
      Did the students involve themselves in conduct likely to cause the breach of peace?
      I am lost the article is rather confusing.
      What was the president alluding to when he described students as “… unacceptable that University of Zambia students can engage in acts of lawlessness while at the same time condemning criminal acts in South Africa. “

    • Commiserate with those who hv lost loved ones? Commiseration is used in non-serious losses such as losing a football match and not bereavement. Anyway, how hv students been able to march to Manda Hill whn in the past they hv always been stopped before leaving their campus? Did someone look the other way? It’s not looking normal.

    • Maharaji – Follow events correctly. The President has already done what you are asking. Secondly, there was some looting by the students that has been reported.

    • Who is the head of xenophobic attacks in Zambia? Tell us who killed the UPND supporter in Chawama? Who killed the student at UNZA? Who killed the NDC Supporter in Luanshya/Lusaka? Who is killing Zambians in Hospitals, hunger stricken areas, through unaffordable mealie meal prices, corruption and thefts?

    • I only wanted to hear if he has also cancelled his trip to South Africa like some Heads of State have done. Museveni has already traveled. Kagame, Magufuli and Mutharika have cancelled. Please give us your position

  2. THE PRESIDENT DOESN’T LIKE TALKING TO HIS CITIZENS….??? LET HIM ADDRESS US WE ARE ALSO DISAPPOINTED THAT A DOCTOR FROM UNZA ALSO OUR PRESIDENT ALWAYS CHOOSES TO TALK TO US THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE EVEN IN TIMES THAT WE NEED HIM TO ADDRESS US… IT’S A UNZA THING

  3. since voices a coming out may b our brothers will hear us that we a not happy for killing our relatives in south africa. congrats our pres

  4. “President Lungu has described as unacceptable that University of Zambia students can engage in acts of lawlessness while at the same time condemning criminal acts in South Africa”.

    A very good point of hypocritic proportion.

    Isn’t this also the very chap who condemns corruption and yet participate in it?

    Chagwa

  5. this guy is full of himself. real uncle tom.
    grow some b alls you coward and stand up and condemn what the protests are about.
    you should have been proactive and come out and offered some sort of leadership…or wait you can’t cause you’re not a leader. busy planning some other foreign trip

  6. Scatter teeth just shut up you good for nothing buum, useless worst president in the world , as far as we are concerned you can burn all South African businesses , these monsters think Africa belongs to them.

    • But nigga are you not in the SA?
      What’re you yapping about?

      “Those in grass houses should not through stones”.

  7. The best way Mr president you can do is to ask the army to prepare themselves so that we go and rescue our people. Because this South Africans will not stop doing this no sense. And make sure that the bodies of our brothers and sisters are brought back and sleep in their on country. thanks

  8. This nation is lead by mafias .thats why this Government cannot condemn the xenophobia attacks against our foreign brothers and sisters in south Africa simply because they are learning the tactics of killings so that they execute it on its citizen.

    • Read the facts before you comment because you will be ashamed of your self after you have known what the president said. Muletekanya, stop being negative every time you hear the president’s name. Some of you your hearts are cronically ill of hatred. I don’t know if you see yourselves as better people with all the insults you are showering at the head of state. Are you going to solve problems in Zambia through insults? No matter what wrong he has committed to you will God support you? Offer solutions not insults. Be civilised.

  9. This was a peaceful demonstration for a noble cause – the students presented a petition to the South African High Commission. That is what enlightened persons who want a justifiable humane society DO. ECL has himself failed lamentably in foriegn policy that condemns injustice. He has failed to robustly articulate against violence in his own yard, let alone on the continent. He has failed to suggest any form of sanction against perpetrators of barbaric acts, be it general masses or governments. Yet, he is so quick to condemn students who at least have had the b.alls to do something. Even as chair of the ‘peace and defence’ portfolio of SADC, he exhibited nothing to that end. Useless, I say, useless.

  10. President Lungu doesn’t think, how come you condemn students while people are dying like flys what will you gain from South Africans

    • South Africa is their hospital for the Pigs in Animal farm, They have more to loose when South Africa is Angry . They would rather issue Facebook testaments.

  11. You were suppose to condemn South Africans at first day you heard about this now you sit and watch after so many people died that’s when you condemn students do you know how happy we are as students did that? I can’t blame you sir you had no vision for this post and you still don’t have vision

  12. 1. Pa Bunga atishani,
    2. FIC report on corruption,
    3. 42 for 42,
    4. Forest 27,
    5. Junior Doctors not on payroll for 5 months,
    6. Hunger situation in some parts of the country,
    7. constitution e.t.c
    ok tukamona

  13. It’s a South African problem and it’s a social economic issue that needs the leadership of that country to address with support of all citizens and foreign countries Zambia is a good country and is received well in south Africa and its very rare that a Zambian will offend or be offended by south Africans but as usual there are always cases
    it’s like living a grass house and start throwing stones at your neighbors BECAUSE HOW DO YOU RELATE HOW DO YOU DO BUSINESS AND HOW DO YOU PLAY ITS EMBARRASSING
    South Africans cannot survive without fellows that is known and widely observed economically and politically it could be short lived they need other countries like Zambia most
    BUT SOMETIME IF YOU TRAVEL OBSERVE THAT…

  14. I seem to be lost with the contents of the presidential spokesperson. Is the president condemning the students for presenting a petition to the South African high commissioner because they sometimes riot? What the students have done was suppose to be done by Malanji the foreign affairs minister along time ago. What the President should do is to commend the students and then caution them but not condemn them. I have a feeling that the presidential spokesperson has a very limited vocabulary.

    • Watch the footage they were looting at Manda Hill. The president praised the students for presenting their petition, but wondered why the students went to Manda Hill to target shops owned by South Africans.

  15. SADC and AU are toothless bulldog. Just like UN over Syria. These institutions luck leadership. I would rather support ECOWAS than supporting these institutions which are void of leadership. Mayhem in South Africa is a sign of failed leadership. It is pointless hiding our heads in the sand like proverbial ostrich. Africa Union and United Nations are failed organizations. The world is getting into extinction because of luck of leadership in these institutions. UN has failed to tackle climate change and Syria mayhem. It is just full of rhetoric and lucks pragmatism.

  16. Careful Ba Lungu, ka! Now the talk in UNZA is to shift gear from Xenophobic attacks in South Africa to high mealie meal prices. I am still reminded of the last riots over increased mealie meal prices in 1990. We were in our last year. When UNZA students got into the compounds to protest the hike in mealie meal prices, there was serious rioting in LSK that marked the beginning of the end of Kaunda’s rule. There is now so much talk about high mealie meal prices, load-shedding and the UNZA strike is looming over unpaid August salaries. Good luck ba PF.

  17. dad pa lungu ikalenifye, our people are dying, the way u are steeling that is the same way to chess this south africans back to their country. mr president you have failed us. Keep quiet.

  18. We are busy condemning south Africa when Zambia is also slowly degenerating into the same thing because of tribalism, oppression and suppression of people and parties with different views, wide spread corruption, a forced constitution ammendment, a failing economy just to mention a few. While all this is happening we have an absentee president in the country who cares about only himself and does nothing but add more fuel to whatever is happening. Mr president wake up for once and act like a president, people risked to illegally give you the presidency.

  19. Was he speaking from one of his several residences outside Zambia? Anyway, while I do not find much interest in the way this guy carries on with his presidency I support his sentiments. Come on guys – protest but don’t do those looting things and nonsense that are causing our countrymen in South Africa anguish. I am now waiting for the president to issue a statement on his next visit to Zambia.

  20. LT has given us a half baked article, I am really confused here. In support of the students march on the South African Embassy, but what was the president talking about in the second part of his message. Report everything Lusaka Times, not your half drunk articles.

  21. AU should enact and enforce a law which will forbid any African country that is a member of AU to commit such crimes. An attack on an African, should be an attack on all. Fight the people who caged you for over 400 years rather than easy pickings on your brothers and sisters.

  22. I have been thinking about the xenophobia in South Africa and how many nationalities have lost their businesses I have heard that Bangladeshians , Pakistanians , Congolese Zimbabweans , Malawians including Nigerians have suffered the unfortunate.
    I also wanted to know how many Zambian nationals lost their businesses due to the phenomenal that occurred in our neighbors country.
    To my surprise little or not one has lost anything in such a situation, but Zambians have been so quick to do wrong with South African businesses and outspoken about the misfortune, I am still waiting to learn about what has happened to my fellow Zambians in South Africa.

    • The whole situation was firstly miss-reported by our South African Media which acts as a third force pushing an unkwon narrative. Shops that were looted and burned in South Africa were mostly informal businesses belonging to both South African and foreign own shops. The violence was started by the killing of a South African taxi driver who was amongst a group of taxi drivers trying to stop the selling of drugs to school kids, you must also remember that in the taxi industry, you will find Zambian, Zimbabwean and Malawian taxi drivers as well and they were also part of that group trying to stop the selling of drugs to school kids. Now what happened after that was the killing of the taxi driver by a drug dealer who many believed was a Nigerian national, and after that, violence erupted, not…

  23. The demonstration in itself was largely peaceful. It was only when some members of the general public joined in that a few things were broken around the Malls. The students continued peacefully to the South African Embassy.

  24. This should have also afforded him an opportunity to condemn the planned protest against Chishimba Kabwili tomorrow. Instead Lungu is defeaningly quiet which signals the green light on his part. Smh.

  25. Batata ba lungu please ichimbuya aside. unza students responded peacefully with an escort by your trusties (the police).show pride to real zambian(unza students). Why do you want to show love and kindness to the heartless south Africans?what business are you doing with them wetata?I think answer me

  26. Just wondering who is more Lawless between Lawless Lawyers in power and Students staging a Peaceful protest and defacing Signage at the SA embassy as a Dyonko!
    Nigerian Students gutted SA businesses in Nigeria but we heard no condemnation from Nigerian president Buhari! Sometimes you get the impression that our Chagwa lacks Emotional Intelligence and because of that, he fails to read in between the lines! If anything, our students needed to be commended for their exemplary conduct during the protest in that they never resorted to stoning vehicles or public property like in the past! Instead, Chagwa should concentrate on redeeming his legacy of tribalism which is a worse evil than Xenophobia!

  27. I smell a rat here. The usual useless opposition must have infiltrated the students and started looting just to test the capacity of the police service. Its high time Kanganja was deployed to foreign service and bring in new blood that will transform the service into the once feared Police force. There is too much indiscipline under the police service. Crime is all time high. police officers have stopped growing vegetables but own fleet of cars they use as pirate taxis.

  28. Our African brothers likes complaining about African migrants, instead of pipointing the main cause of our poverty. African migrants takes none of the jobs. Even if they destroy those small African migrants business, it is only gonna increase their poverty. It is really an acceptable what the zambian university student had done.

  29. What’s up ECL, did the students engage themselves in acts of xenophobia, did they beat up anyone? They should actually be commended for presenting their petition to the SA high commission. They took to the streets because you as president you were just watching when Zambians were being brutalized in SA. Even FAZ showed some balls.
    By the way, are you going to SA to attend the economic forum?

  30. The South African Media is acting like a third force, they only report half truths to the world. Not even a single Zambian was hurt during theptrotests, I have never heard of any South African complaining about Zambians working in South Africa nor Malawians, Namibians or Zimbabweans because of the hidtory of these SADC countires. In South Africa, you will find families belonging to this nations I’ve just mentioned established amomgs the black South Africans families, some being married to each other. The Problem started when east and west African nationals entered the fray: South Africa has become one of the African countries with a high number of drug users, prostitution and human trafficking and in all this, you find Nigerians and Tanzanians being at the fore front of these evil crimes…

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