Economic crisis left most Zambians worse off, says UNZASU president

Economic crisis left most Zambians worse off, says UNZASU president
By Masuzyo Chakwe and Sututu Katundu
Sun 03 Jan. 2010, 04:01 CAT

UNIVERSITY of Zambia Students Union (UNZASU) president Duncan Nyirongo said the most vulnerable people in society last year endured serious tribulations. And Nyirongo said the global economic recession, coupled with poor governance, left most Zambians in a worse off situation.

In an interview, Nyirongo said the already high unemployment levels were further stretched due to the laying off of workers especially in the mining sector, as one of the measures to reduce variable costs to maximise profits. Nyirongo said other sectors such as banking became more stringent and hesitant to give out loans to the public.

“In addition, most institutions, specifically mines and banks halted employment of new staff due to the uncertainty in the depth and duration of the recession. Most employees were met by wage-freezes as well as failure by employers to honour contractual obligations,” said Nyirongo in his reflections of 2009. “This saw the country experience prolonged strikes by civil servants especially in the education and health sectors.

The impact could not be hidden as some of the affected pupils, students and civil servants took to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with the way of governance. Strikes by academic staff in institutions of learning resulted in the loss of precious time while those in health institutions resulted in unnecessary deaths.”

He said the strike by workers at UNZA did not only result in loss of time but also a further distortion of the university academic calendar.
Nyirongo said the effect of this was far reaching than a layman could understand.

“Every person, even a child at basic school, with aspirations of studying at UNZA was automatically delayed by an equal amount of time lost by the currently registered students at the university.

This is so because as long as the university enrollment capacity remains unchanged, there can never be any new enrollment before the currently registered students graduate,” he said.
He said equally, the basic and secondary sub-sectors of education faced a huge challenge of teachers withdrawing labour.

Nyirongo said this led to some pupils being de-motivated and consequently led to some pulling out of school in preference to other social and economic activities which included gathering caterpillars for survival, among other activities retrogressive to child development.

He said those that withstood this pressure found their exams harder as they could not finish their syllabi.
Nyirongo further said human rights violations continued in the year 2009 with gross abuse of power by the trigger excited state police.

“We again saw state police going on rampage invading institutions of learning tear gassing pupils and students as well as shooting of students with live ammunition with impunity.

On the other hand, it was the students union’s leadership that had to be expelled from school without any trial, and a further illegal suspension of the Students Union at CBU,” Nyirongo said. “We strongly wish the President could have had much interest in the criminal cases involving the shooting of students rather than that to do with journalist that tried to expose the sufferings of women due to striking medical personal.

The injustice did not end at students and journalists, but spread to workers in the mines who had to be sucked for demonstrating for improved conditions of service.”

Nyirongo said infrastructure in institutions of learning like UNZA had continued to deteriorate without significant attention.

“The leaking roofs that have always characterised student hostels and lecture rooms have now spread to central administration, leading to the covering of the central administration block with tents. The institution’s library is equally in a bad condition, too small for the ever increasing student population, with extreme shortage of updated learning and teaching materials,” he said.

He said poor planning in the year 2009 resulted in a serious shortage of fuel for about two months, a situation that adversely affected production in almost all sectors.

“This forced government to wave duty on the importation fuel in the county, a situation that resulted in the nation losing tax revenue. All these are clear signs of misplaced priorities by the national leadership. Amide such a crisis, the nation saw some government officials celebrate the acquittal of some people believed to have contributed to the suffering of the rest of the Zambians. The President even went ahead to congratulate common Zambians for accepting the acquittal even before the Director of Public Prosecution and Attorney General who are prominent lawyers and key advisors to government, could study the judgment,” he said.

Nyirongo said 2009 further saw an increase in political violence with vicious exchange of words, like ‘red eyes’, ‘ugly face’, ‘rabid dog’, among top political party officials, which were none developmental.
He said this extended to physical fighting between some government officials and some opposition political party carders.

Nyirongo said 2009 was also characterised by beating up of journalists, as well as bloodshed clashes especially in periods prior to by-elections, a situation that UNZASU utterly condemned.

He said although there was a strong feeling that such violence may escalate as the 2011 general elections approached, UNZASU employed all Zambians to reject those who would be seen to be perpetuating anarchy.

“It should come to an end not only because it has potential to breed anarchy but also portrays a bad picture of the nation to the outside world,” he said.
Nyirongo said UNZASU was also particularly saddened that some people found pleasure in promoting politics that were based of tribalism.

“UNZASU would love to see a Zambia that can carry a common and shared destiny, united in diversity, equitably integrated and democratic in governance, promoting patriotism and ethnic integration , as outlined in our shared national vision, Vision 2030,” he said.

He said UNZASU next year expected much more attention to be given to key sectors that would sharpen the chances of Zambia realising the Vision 2030, which seeks to make Zambia a prosperous middle-income nation by the year 2030.

And the Evelyn Hone College Students Union (EHCOSU) has said it wants to see more commitment from government and the college management towards uplifting the standards of learning at the institution in 2010.

EHCOSU publicity secretary Lumpa Kalumba said the government should give a more listening ear to students because they felt they are the major stakeholders in the development of this country.