UNZA is a very troubled institution - Hichilema

UNZA is a very troubled institution - Hichilema
By Patson Chilemba
Sunday April 08, 2007 [04:00]

UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has said the University of Zambia (UNZA) is a very troubled institution. And Hichilema said the search for a vice-chancellor for UNZA should be done in a more professional and transparent manner. Commenting on the many problems affecting UNZA such as erratic water supply, lack of adequate infrastructure and study materials and the unsuccessful search for the vice-chancellor, Hichilema said UNZA was riddled with many problems that required urgent attention. "UNZA is such a troubled institution. There are many things that require urgent attention like infrastructure and many others, there is need for a vice-chancellor who can provide leadership for the institution that is so troubled," he said

On the unsuccessful search for the vice-chancellor that was carried out three months ago and the eventual complaints by stakeholders that education minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa had hijacked the process, Hichilema said UNZA was of strategic importance to Zambia and therefore could not continue operating without a vice-chancellor. "UNZA has had no vice-chancellor for a long time and that is not a good thing. Let's do it in a more professional and transparent manner. While we search for the vice-chancellor we must do it expeditiously," Hichilema said. "We like politicising issues but the vice- chancellor's position is one that we must take very seriously." Hichilema said those that were supposed to expedite the process must be allowed to do so without hindrance.

Last week, University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) president Evans Lampi charged that Prof Lungwangwa went against the UNZA Act of 1999 by allowing the Search Committee to report directly to him minus recommendation from the UNZA Council as stipulated in the law Lampi quoted that the university Act of 1999 section 8 (1) which states that: "There shall be a vice-chancellor for a public university appointed by the minister on recommendation of the Council, who shall be the academic, financial and administrative head of the university and who shall, where the chancellor is unable to do so at ceremonial assemblies of the university, confer all degrees and other academic titles and distinctions of the university."

When asked to comment on Lampi's accusations, Prof Lungwangwa consistently responded: "As far as government is concerned, the search for the vice-chancellor continues and will last up to the end of May." UNZA has had no vice-chancellor since Professor Robert Serpell's contract expired last December. Dr Wilson Mwenya is currently acting in that capacity.