Maravi

Poor economic planning worries UNZASU

Poor economic planning worries UNZASU
By Agness Changala
Wed 21 Oct. 2009, 15:36 CAT

UNIVERSITY of Zambia Students Union (UNZASU) president Duncan Nyirongo has warned that the current happenings in Zambia may make the country worse than Zimbabwe. In an interview on Monday, Nyirongo said his union was concerned that the country’s economy had continued to be torn apart due to poor planning in many sectors.

“This confirms what we have been saying that Zambia might become worse than Zimbabwe,” he said. “Fuel shortage, high cost of production and poor international relations were some of the issues that characterised the dwindling of Zimbabwe’s economy.”

He said the current situation had repercussions on the country’s inflation rate due to loss of foreign exchange, high production costs and escalating prices of basic commodities due to their short supply and increased transportation costs.
Nyirongo said this had grave effects on the running of various sectors which were dependent on fuel.

“The effects are far-reaching because it would also include the shortage of various commodities and it will lead to low productivity in the manufacturing sectors,” he said.

Nyirongo said even the transportation of human resource was equally affected because its dependency was on the availability of fuel.

“This is one type of laws that a dull person may not easily understand,” he said. “It takes somebody who can plan beyond their nose.”
He was hopeful that the casual approach exhibited by the government on the fuel shortage would soon be eliminated.

Nyirongo said his union was concerned with government officials who were developing a tendency to label those who commented on matters of national interest.

Nyirongo further said UNZASU, under his leadership, had not served as an instrument of every politician saying nothing would compel them to do so.
“And those that are still disputing that, let it be left to time to judge us,” Nyirongo said.

And Nyirongo has assured students at the institution that their meal allowance would be paid before the commencement of examinations in the next two weeks.
He said this in an interview after he addressed students who gathered at the institution’s Monk Square on speculation that they were not going to paid for the extra days management extended the calendar.

“The institution sessional calendar was extended to two weeks and what we told the students is that we had communicated with relevant authorities and I assured them that they will get paid before beginning of exams in two weeks’ time,” he said.

Nyirongo explained that there were also some students who did not get their allowances due to late registration and as a result, they were left out by the bursaries committee.

He complained that the response received from Ministry of Education officials after bringing the matter to their attention was not favourable.
Nyirongo appealed to the ministry and the bursaries committee to respond positively, saying the issue had the potential to disturb the examination period, which he said was critical.

Labels: DUNCAN NYIRONGO, UNZASU

posted by MrK @ 4:12 PM