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Expelled COBUSU leaders seek justice

Expelled COBUSU leaders seek justice
Written by Staff Reporters
Friday, September 11, 2009 5:07:41 PM

NINE expelled Copperbelt University Students Union (COBUSU) executive members yesterday resolved to spend a night outside the Boma local court in Lusaka in a symbolic mission to seek justice over their expulsion. Expelled COBUSU president Kasonde Mwenda said the former students would also fast to seek justice over their ejection from school.

"We have not been tried but we have been found guilty. We will gather at 20:00 tonight [yesterday] at the local court; we are sleeping here to seek justice," Mwenda said. "We don't have where to spend a night. Why should we eat and sleep well when we have been robbed of our future? We are on a total fast."

He said his executive decided to take the protest to Lusaka after exhausting all the available channels in Kitwe and having appealed to CBU against their expulsions.

He said the students' executive had been used as a sacrificial lamb but that they would seek justice.

Mwenda said the university knew beyond doubt that the union leaders were innocent.

He said CBU made him and his colleagues part of an investigation to establish who was behind the confusion on the evening of August 12 that culminated in a street demonstration in which a Toyota Hilux Surf was burnt on Jambo Drive.

"What is happening is flushing innocent souls and using them as scapegoats," Mwenda said. "I am a person; I have got a future also and my parents expect something out of it... I am a fifth-year student with only four months remaining and you want to just throw that away? Wickedness should not be made to be with right. If those who advocate peace can be treated like criminals then I don't know."

He wondered why the COBUSU executive was expelled without being allowed to exculpate themselves.

"I led people on a peaceful demonstration [during the day] which has not happened in a very long time," he said. "I was trying by all means to bring sanity; if this be the reward then God vindicate us. It takes the university way back... they made us part of investigation, they got statements from us, little did we know that we were the targets."

He said COBUSU leaders testified their innocence to the riotus behaviour and that they should not have been expelled just because they belonged to the union.

"They know beyond doubt that we never authored confusion," said Mwenda. "I myself risked my life to go and stop the confusion... we are people of calibre and we should be judged by what we stand for; we stand for right and truth. I'll stand for right and justice whether expulsion or imprisonment... because I know the Christ in me is greater than the one who is in the world."

COBUSU judiciary chairperson Vincent Sakeni said the student body would seek legal redress over expulsion of the entire union executive if proper reasons were not advanced.

Sakeni in his complaint letter to CBU Vice-Chancellor dated September 8, 2009, stated that the decision by the university senate to expel the entire COBUSU executive does not make any logical sense.

"Now, we are still wondering as to why you as the Chairman and the Registrar as the Secretary of this body failed to inform the union of this meeting so that it could send its representatives. I am led to believe that this was a deliberate move to leave out lawful members of the Senate of that meeting. It is thus a breach of the law, and we as a union shall seek legal redress over this matter should you fail to furnish us with proper reasons for such a failure. Furthermore, my understanding of the university's disciplinary policy is that COBUSU officials are supposed to be brought before the Adhoc student disciplinary committee in order to give them a chance to thoroughly exculpate themselves over the charges brought forward. I believe that failing to convene such a forum to try the union executive is circumvention of the justice that is supposed to be accorded to them," he stated. "I also wish to raise serious concerns over the remarks made by Hon. Lameck Mangani who is the Minister of Home Affairs. His ministry is in charge of public security and not direction of university rules and regulations."

Sakeni stated that Mangani's comments created a strong impression that the state interfered in the management of the university, thus leading to expulsion of the union executive.

"This is a serious breach of the semi-autonomous nature of public universities. These institutions are created by law and are thus only subject to the relevant laws and the policies of the Ministry of Education. Therefore, it is imperative that purely political-minded individuals like Hon. Mangani should concentrate on their political work and not interfere in the running of the institution," he stated.

Following the student peaceful demonstration in which they called for education minister Dora Siliya’s removal and a riot later in the night, Mangani remarked that the students' demonstration were politically motivated.

Mangani issued another statement saying it was unfortunate that some COBUSU leaders might have to be expelled.

And Zambia Civic Education Association (ZCEA) executive director Judith Mulenga described the expulsion of the entire COBUSU executive as a punitive and repressive measure.

Mulenga urged the CBU Senate to immediately rescind its decision to expel the university student leaders and reinstate them.

"Expulsion of the student leaders will not solve the many problems that the university faces. Expelling the student leaders is a punitive and repressive measure that is intended to create fear in the student populace," she said.

She described the expulsion as victimisation.

"It is reactive rather than proactive and like many reactive decisions it is meant to buy time for the short term, mere fire-fighting. The long-term solutions need an honest, objective and concerted examination of the problems and not knee jerk responses," Mulenga said. "Even if these student leaders are expelled other leaders will emerge and other riots will occur as long as the root causes of the problems are not addressed. Meanwhile, the contribution that the expelled students would have made to Zambia's development will be lost.

"Who doesn't know that persons with leadership qualities are movers, shakers and doers? A fiery former UNZA student leader by the name of Ben Chilufya was expelled in the 1980s during the UNIP-rule but other students later rose up and led the riots in 1990 that culminated in the fall of the UNIP led government!"

She stressed the need for human rights to defend the expelled students.

"In these difficult times of consistent and deliberate repression when the hegemony uses the tired old divide and rule technique, when people's actions are guided by 'what is in it for me?' there is a need for a committed cohort of human rights defenders over and above their respective organisations' or day jobs who should rise up and fight for the human rights of individuals such as these student leaders," she said.

Mulenga said ZCEA was sure that the members of the senate were once students who know what goes on at these institutions.

"Often enough student leaders mean well but are caught between a rock and a hard place - they have to balance their electorate’s demands and the middle ground and sometimes they fail," Mulenga said. "We see this even at central government level where leaders fail to stop their cadres' zeal and belligerent attitude to those perceived to be enemies."

And Natural Resources Development College Students Union (NRDCSU) said the action taken by CBU management was undemocratic and humiliating, saying it aimed at instilling fear and cowardice in the students as it was a way of blocking them from airing their views and operating independently.

NRDCSU president Aston Musakabantu said it was unfair and illogical for CBU administration to expel the entire union leadership without a proper reason.

Labels: COBUSU, KASONDE MWENDA

posted by MrK @ 4:11 PM