UNZASU demands reinstatement of expelled COBUSU leaders

UNZASU demands reinstatement of expelled COBUSU leaders
Written by Masuzyo Chakwe in Lusaka and Mutuna Chanda in Kitwe
Saturday, September 12, 2009 2:04:20 AM

UNIVERSITY of Zambia Students Union (UNZASU) has demanded that the expelled Copperbelt University Students Union (COBUSU) leaders be reinstated and subjected to a speedy fair trial.

And former COBUSU president Emmanuel Mwange said the expelled students' leadership at CBU had good grounds to sue the university.

According to a statement, UNZASU president Duncan Nyirongo revealed that the students were looking at other alternatives to help their colleagues.

"It is rather shocking that the much learned authorities of the university could sink so low as to expel the students without any form of trial to prove their innocence. This is an act of tyranny, an act of oppression and dictatorship. The issue to do with students resorting to demonstrations; one of their constitutional and democratic rights of expressing displeasure, is not a new phenomenon. It is therefore significant that a critical assessment of this matter be carried if a better and lasting solution is to be found," he stated.

Nyirongo stated that students at various institutions of learning across the nation would take to the streets as a way of expressing their displeasure over the casual attention most of their issues had received from various stakeholders in the country.

"NRDC, Chainama College, NIPA, Evelyn Hone College and UNZA, are examples of institutions that have gone through such eventualities. With such a background, it would be unfair to perceive a student who demonstrates for better conditions at their institution of learning or indeed police brutality as being indisciplined. Because this would entail that almost all students at higher institutions of learning in the nation are indisciplined, something that is far from the truth," he stated.

Nyirongo stated that the demonstrations were so peaceful that no confrontation with the police was recorded.

He stated that it was difficult for those that were being criticised to understand why the students resorted to demonstrations in most cases.

"If one is to fully understand why the much learned university lecturers have on several occasions expressed their grievances through demonstrations such as withdrawal of labour, they may probably have to be a lecturer. It should be understood that the many problems that we are going through today, either as an institution or the nation, are because of the inadequacies in the policies that someone who was in leadership before, never did their part," he stated. "They might have taken things so casually without considering the effects of such decisions on us the siblings and indeed children."

He stated that the manner in which the CBU management and senate had treated the case of students suspected to have played a role in the recent demonstrations was of great concern to UNZASU.

"We all understand the right of any accused to be heard as being one of the fundamental principles of the natural justice. Expulsion from a university is the highest level of punishment that can ever be slapped by the university on erring students. As such, there should be evidence beyond any reasonable doubt for such a punishment to be metted on any accused person. This punishment has to do with elimination of the one found wanting from the community in question [University community]. This is not any different from what was happening in South Africa during the time of apartheid," he stated.

Nyirongo stated that it was rather alarming that such a punitive action could be arrived at without the accused being tried.

He expressed concern over the decision made by the university to suspend the students union, totally disregarding the provision of its existence in Article 39 of the University Act.

"We have high hopes that the university authorities comprising of the highly learned individuals whom the general public look up to will try to appreciate the basic principles of natural justice and allow justice to prevail. Even as they reconsider your verdict, it is just fine that they take a critical assessment of the situation the students are confronted with,"Nyirongo stated.

"Union leaders are there in their official capacity to facilitate dialogue with the police and any other concerned persons or authorities, they are also there as spokespersons for the students. It is because of this mammoth task that students' leaders are bound to be found in predicaments like one of this nature."

And Mwange described the ejection of the students as a mockery of justice.

"The decision to expel them is a travesty of justice; it's ultra vires to suspend union activities, it is not backed by the law," Mwange said. "The expelled leaders have good grounds to sue. There's a precedent that was set in 1999 when COBUSU leaders were expelled; they filed an injunction and the union won the case."

Mwange, who is acting as a negotiator for the expelled COBUSU leaders, said arrangements were being made with lawyers to see how the case could be handled.

"We have tried to lobby the parties who were involved in the decision and some of the people saw a rocky heart in the decision, we are trying to speak to others whom we didn't speak to," he said. "There are also political ramifications to this issue and I am urging the students' leadership at UNZA; the UNZASU to prepare their guts, to prepare their hearts, to prepare their souls and spirits because what is happening is an attempt to silence credible voices."

He said UNZASU needed to stand and defend the cause of their counterparts who had been expelled.

"We need to get rid of this beggar mentality in this country where if someone steps on your toes, you say 'excuse me, my feet are under yours'," he said. "I expect the student leadership at UNZA to lead peaceful demonstrations and I would urge them to stand in the gap for the cause they have stood up for. UNZASU should show the incompetent leadership of Rupiah Banda; I would urge them to peacefully demonstrate. I would urge civil society, trade unions and all progressive voices to rise en masse. The only way mediocre leadership will win is if we do nothing. The expulsion of COBUSU leadership provides an opportunity to voice out over Zamtel, the mediocre Chiluba judgment, the hacking of journalists and also to ensure that there's justice over the shooting of an innocent student."

And expelled COBUSU president Kasonde Mwenda said the last senate meeting that he and COBUSU academic affairs secretary Laston Sangwapo attended concluded that the students' union was innocent of the riotus acts that led to the burning of the Toyota Hilux Surf.

Mwenda challenged the senate to go back to the minutes of the meeting in which they resolved that COBUSU was innocent of the riotus acts.

He explained that COBUSU presented its position on the riot in which the vehicle was burnt and that the senate declared the union innocent.

And Sangwapo expressed surprise that in one breath, CBU said COBUSU would not be held responsible for the riot and in another, asked the student leaders to find the ones who burnt the vehicle or else some people would be sacrificed.

Last week, the CBU senate expelled the entire COBUSU leadership and suspended some students for activities that caused instability at the institution leading to a riot on the evening of August 12 in which a Toyota Hilux Surf was burnt.

The senate also suspended all students' union activities.

The expulsions and suspensions came after home affairs minister Lameck Mangani's sentiments that some COBUSU leaders might have to be expelled.

Mangani's earlier statement that was aired on Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) on August 12 that the peaceful demonstration that the students held during the day in Kitwe was politically motivated, sparked the riot in which the Toyota Hilux Surf was burnt.