ZANASU SHOULD NOT BE REDUCED TO A BUNCH OF POLITICAL DIMWITS

WE have no problem with individuals or groups of individuals having dissenting views from others but where we have a problem is when individuals use their positions to influence associations to peddle their own selfish motives.

We are alive to the fact that the Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU) is the mother body of all student unions at colleges and universities in Zambia which was registered on November 17, 1965 to look into the plight of students.

Among other things, the Union is responsible for representing students and electing members of different administrative organs. They also coordinate and fund the activities of smaller student organizations, as well as organizing discussions on academic, national, cultural, and general problems.

It also is also supposed to organize debates as well as take up other activities proposed by the Union and approved by the principal but what we have seen over the years is that ZANASU has become an assemblage of politically-puffed individuals who are using their positions to pursue their own political interests.

What we have been expecting from ZANASU is a body of intellectuals capable of dissenting national issues as per their mandate to attract a sane discourse on issues facing the student populace as well as the nation at large but this body has successfully failed to live up to its mandate. The only thing those at the helm have succeeded in being used as cats’ pawns by politicians.

We are alive to the fact that not long ago, ZANUS Secretary General Mambwe Bwalya led the Danish Student Union to former president Edgar Lungu where they had a meeting and two careless statements came out of that meeting, the first one being his mockery of the increment in students’ allowances and his consequent attack on the Speaker of National Assembly, Nelly Mutti.

It is these careless statements that make us wonder about the credibility of individuals who run the affairs of the students who are supposed to be intellectuals in this country. Agreed, Bwlya is free to belong to or support the party of his choice but dragging along the institution to parade himself in his support for Lungu is what we do not agree with unless he now wants to tell us that ZANASU is now a political branch of the former president.

To add context to our argument on meal allowances, we all know that in 2019, Minister of Higher Education Nkandu Luo announced the scrapping of meal allowances starting with the first year students in that academic calendar, saying the scheme will only cover accommodation and tuition fees to be paid directly to the learning institutions while students would only be paid book and project allowances.

According to Luo, the move to scrap the meal allowance was meant to scale up more resources that would be distributed in more public universities that have been included in the Government’s loan scheme for students.

According to her, the country’s biggest and second biggest public universities, the University of Zambia (UNZA) and the Copperbelt University (CBU) would receive 1,900 scholarships each while only 1,000 of them will be distributed amongst five other public universities.

But we should not forget that before this decision was arrived at, there were already a number of skirmishes between the police and students over the late payment of meal allowances. This had reached a crescendo when one of the students was killed through suffocation when police officers teargassed the students hostels to smoke them out from their rooms. 

It was under the same Lungu’s administration when the scrapping of this allowance was announced but we never heard ZANASU complaining. 

The meal allowance had been provided to students to help cover the cost of meals while they were studying at their respective institutions. However, the Government cited financial constraints as the reason for suspending the allowance, stating that the funds allocated for it would be redirected towards other priority areas, such as healthcare and infrastructure.

The decision was met with mixed reactions, with some students and education advocates expressing concern about the impact it would have on students from low-income backgrounds who relied on the allowance to meet their basic needs.

Critics argued that the suspension of the meal allowance would further exacerbate the challenges faced by students and could potentially hinder their ability to focus on their studies. Overall, the suspension of the meal allowance for students in Zambia was a controversial decision that highlighted the difficult economic situation facing the country and the tough choices that needed to be made to address it.

Yes, the decision to suspend the meal allowance for students in Zambia was met with significant backlash and complaints from students across the country. Many students relied on the meal allowance to cover their basic needs and were concerned about how they would afford meals without this support.

Students argued that the suspension of the meal allowance would have a negative impact on their well-being and academic performance, as they would struggle to afford nutritious meals while studying at their respective institutions. Some students also raised concerns about the potential increase in cases of malnutrition and hunger among students who were already facing financial difficulties.

Additionally, student organizations and advocacy groups criticized the Government for prioritizing cost-cutting measures over the welfare of students, highlighting the importance of providing adequate support to ensure that students could focus on their studies without worrying about basic needs.

Overall, the complaints and protests from students in Zambia highlighted the challenges and hardships faced by students as a result of the suspension of the meal allowance, and underscored the need for the government to consider the well-being of students in its decision-making processes.

But before the actual announcement and when the reports first emerged that student meal allowances were to be abolished, the same ZANASU, through its then president MisheckKakonde, tried to water down the media reports.

On December 24, 2018, he issued a statement that the Union had noted the growing anxiety among students from Copperbelt University and University of Zambia on the news reported about the Government abolishing meal allowances.

He called for calm among students as ZANASU and various student unions had opened a fruitful dialogue with the Higher Education Loans and Scholarship Board (HELSB) over student loans and grants.

He said while the Union did not doubt the thoroughness of media colleagues in conducting responsible journalism, ZANASU could not confirm the authenticity of the news attributed to the Minister of Higher Education, Nkandu Luo.

He said the Union was not aware of any regulations or Statutory Instrument that could have been issued to abolish the provision of meal allowances and that the fact that no regulation or Statutory Instrument had been issued on the abolishment of meal allowances, as yet, there was no need for the report to raise unnecessary anxiety among students.

He said the Union believed delays by the Government to meet its obligations in paying allowances which were part of the students’ loan and grant agreement must not become an excuse for students to cause unrest or damage to public property in and outside institutions of higher learning and that students must always prioritise the pursuit of dialogue with authorities before anything else.

He indicated that ZANASU remained committed to engaging with the Government, through the Head of State, Ministry of Higher Education and other relevant authorities to resolve matters affecting students and encouraged students to get updates from their Union representative, where such Unions existed.

He said the dialogue which President Lungu had asked HELSB and students to engage in had commenced and students would be updated on progress. The question is, what was the outcome of the dialogue? Few months later, the meal allowances were scrapped. What did ZANASU do? Nothing! It was only after UPND came into office that the meal allowances were reinstated.

Today, the same Union that claims it believes in dialogue went to Lungu’s house to complain about the increment being minimal; the same Lungu who scrapped the meal allowances. Had it not been for the fact that meal allowances were reinstated, was Bwalya going to complain to Lungu about the same when he was the one who engineered its removal? 

Unfortunately, this is what hypocritical stupidity can do; it blinds individuals and makes them irrational beings who can stand for anything whether it makes sense or not and when we see individuals that are supposed to be intellectuals behaving like this, we must all be worried.

As for Munir and his chitenge fanfare for which Bwalya attacked the Speaker of the National Assembly, it is not about how he or Lungu feels about how MPs must dress. There is a Dress Code in Parliament which has nothing to do with Nelly Mutti or the Government.

If Munir wants to be putting on dresses and mini-skirts in Parliament, he knows that it boils down to changing the Standing Orders and he knows how that is done. It has nothing to do with how he feels on a given day and it is only misguided sentimental naives who can defend that nonsense.