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Support UPND and have your problems solved, HH urges UNZA students

Support UPND and have your problems solved, HH urges UNZA students
By Lambwe Kachali
Wednesday June 04, 2008 [04:00]

OPPOSITION UPND president Hakainde Hichilema has urged University of Zambia (UNZA) students to fully support his party in the 2011 general elections if problems at the campus are to be solved. And some UNZA students have vowed not to vote for againg politicians to take over the governance of the country. Speaking to UNZA students who paid a courtesy call on him at the party secretariat in appreciation for the help he rendered to two students who were recently shot by the police during a riot at the Great East Road campus, Hichilema urged students to help society by ushering a party with the passion to change the lives of majority poor Zambians.

Hichilema said it was his obligation to help the needy in society.
He said as a taxpayer, it had always been his passion to have part of the tax channelled to the health sector.

He said unlike MMD, UPND was driven by the spirit to have every Zambian accessing proper health care and education.
"Much as I appreciate your coming, you don't have to thank me for the help I had given to your two fellow students Samuel Nasilele and Chewe Chishala because that is part of my obligation," Hichilema said. "All you can do is to support UPND so that when we are ushered in office in 2011, we can work together and alleviate all the problems UNZA is facing."

Hichilema said students should not be intimidated by politicians when demanding a just cause.
He said UPND was for Zambians and that students were free to associate with the party leadership.

And UPND vice-president Richard Kapita urged students to demand an apology from information minister Mike Mulongoti and education minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa over what he called their reckless statements.

Kapita said the MMD government had completely failed to run the affairs of the nation and therefore should be voted out in the next elections.

"If you look at Angola, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, and China among other countries, they have prioritised the education sector. But this government only allocates less than two per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the education sector, which is a shame," said Kapita.

And students' representative Duncan Kasolo said students had vowed not to vote for politicians.
Kasolo, a third year student in the School of Education, said they would not be silenced by state agents from expressing their opinions whenever things were wrong.

"We need to make a difference between an intellectual and those who have never been to school. We cannot have a president in his 70s; what difference can he make? It is for this reason that we have come here to support you, our next president because as students we have a lot of influence," said Kasolo.

However, University of Zambia Students Union (UNZASU) president Solomon Ng'ambi said the students' meeting with Hichilema had no blessings of the union.

Ng'ambi said UNZASU was non-partisan and whatever students discussed was in their own interest.

Labels: HAKAINDE HICHILEMA, UNZA, UPND

posted by MrK @ 3:35 AM