UNZA lecturers end srike
By Allan Mulenga
Wed 02 May 2012, 09:10 CAT
UNZA lecturers and researchers have with immediate effect suspended their go-slow to allow management and the government to engage into a collective bargaining process. In an interview yesterday, University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) president Dr Euston Chiputa said union members had a meeting where they agreed to go back to work.
"We have actually suspended the go-slow to give the government and management enough time to negotiate meaningful salary increase which we will be agreed upon on Wednesday. Then Thursday, management should be able to consolidate and present it to the government," Dr Chiputa said.
He said the union was expectant that the government would approve the proposed salary adjustments that would be presented to them.
"We are expectant that by 14th May 2012, the government should be able to get back and say this is what has been approved from what will be proposed because it's the government which said ‘put down your proposals, consolidate them and submit them to the government'.
We are expectant that since it is the government which proposed the road map and what should be factored in, they will be able to provide the funding. We don't see why the government should not come round and meet the proposed increases because they will be in line with what the government has guided us," said Dr Chiputa.
Last Monday, UNZA lecturers and researchers resolved to go on a go-slow pressing the government to remove the four per cent salary negotiation ceiling for grant-aided institutions.
Labels: EUSTON CHIPUTA, STRIKE, UNZA
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It's time for PF government to start delivering
By The Post
Mon 19 Mar. 2012, 12:00 CAT
MICHAEL Sata and the PF promised the Zambian people a lot in their election campaigns. They promised to change or improve a lot of things in a very short time, in 90 days. As such, more is expected of them. Those with more to give, more is always expected of them. It was in the belief that PF can deliver on their promises that the Zambian people voted for them. Should there be signs, early signs, that they will not be able to deliver on their promises, public attitude towards them will quickly change.
There is need to always bear in mind that the Zambian people voted for Michael and PF not for anything else other than to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.
If signs start to appear that they will not be able to deliver on their election promises, on their manifesto, public support for them may begin to decline. And there is no political party in the history of this country that publicised its manifesto in the way the PF did.
Actually, the PF was the only party in last year's elections that really campaigned on their manifesto. As Dr Euston Chiputa, president of the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union, has correctly observed, the Zambian people looked at the PF's manifesto critically and voted for them on the understanding that they can turn the country around and make it a prosperous nation.
And it is very easy for Michael and the PF to depart from their manifesto and start implementing other people's agendas which may not be in the interest of the Zambian people.
Today, there are many people coming in to advise Michael and the PF on this and that, people who were not anywhere near them before. Today, all sorts of diplomats, businessmen, academics, civil servants, clergymen are advising Michael. The country is full of good advisors, coaches.
What it takes to succeed in changing our country and improving the living conditions of our people is a bunch of interested and able players. But these were the same people who just a few months ago were the advisors of Rupiah Banda, were very close to Rupiah.
Anyway, that's how being successful is - people always drift to winners, to those who are successful. As John F Kennedy once remarked, "Victory has a thousand fathers, but defeat is an orphan." But as the Bible states, "Anyone can give advice, but some people do so only in their own interest. Be careful when somebody offers you advice.
Find out first what his interest in the matter is, because you can be sure that he is primarily thinking of himself. Why should he come out on top instead of you? He will assure you that things look good, and then stand back to watch what happens to you" (Sirach 37:7-9); "Instead, rely on someone who…sympathetic with you, who will be sorry to see you fail…" (Sirach 37:12).
The only thing that will serve Michael and his government well is delivery on their election campaign promises. There is nothing which makes people more appreciative of a government than that it should be able to deliver on its election campaign promises, be able to deliver services.
The PF has now been in government for almost six months. But it still looks very unsettled. But as Euston has pointed out, five months of being in office was enough for the new PF government to settle down and end its excitement.
Everybody was excited about their election victory, but now it's time to get to serious work not only for those in political leadership or government but for all the citizens. Winning an election is like climbing a ladder. The rung of a ladder was never meant to rest upon, but only to hold a man's foot long enough to enable him to put the other somewhat higher.
There is no need to rest on an election victory because an election victory is not an end itself; it is just a means to get to the top and do some serious work there. They need to get out and do some serious work. As Chinua Achebe wrote in A Man of the People (1967), "A man who has just come from the rain and has dried his body and put on dry clothes is more reluctant to go out again than another who has been indoors all the time.
The trouble with our new nation…was that none of us has been indoors long enough to be able to say ‘to hell with it.' We had all been in the rain together until yesterday. Then a handful of us - the smart and the lucky and hardly ever the best - had scrambled for the one shelter our former rulers left, and had taken it over and barricaded themselves in.
And from within, they sought to persuade the rest through numerous loudspeakers, that the first phase of the struggle had been won and that the next phase - the extension of our house - was even more important and called for new and original tactics; it required that all argument should cease and the whole people should speak with one voice."
Today, the PF government looks very strong and confident. But problems lie ahead. Despite having a very good manifesto, those in government don't seem to know where they are headed; and that is dangerous. Probably they are lost because they had no input in the PF manifesto and indeed in its election victory. Michael seems to be in control of his government.
He is hiring and transferring people at will, but few people seem to know where he is leading. The great thing in the world is not so much where we start as in what direction we are moving. There is need for Michael to clearly define the purpose of his government and match that with his actions.
Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. It is said that to think is easy, to act is hard. But the hardest thing in the world is to act in accordance with your thinking. Leadership is action, not position. And power is the ability to do good things for others.
What people say, what people do, and what they say they do are entirely different things. People's expectations from this government are very high. And it is not the people's fault that their expectations from this government are that high, the PF pushed those expectations that high through their manifesto and other pronouncements during the election campaign.
They have no choice but to deliver. If not, their ending will be disastrous. As Saint Just once remarked, "He who makes a revolution by half digs his own grave."
Labels: EUSTON CHIPUTA, PF
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COMMENT - The only way they can do that, is by introducing the windfall tax, so they will have the money for their projects.
Start fulfilling promises, Chiputa urges PF government
By Agness Changala
Mon 19 Mar. 2012, 11:58 CAT [
UNZA lecturer Dr Euston Chiputa has advised the PF government to get to work and do what they promised Zambians during election campaigns.
In an interview yesterday, Dr Chiputa, who is also University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) president, said the PF's five months of being in office was enough for the new government to settle down and end its excitement.
"It's five months down the road; they must have settled down. The excitement must have ended; they should sit down to serious business. They should implement their manifesto and leave behind a changed Zambia," he said.
Dr Chiputa said PF should not forget its manifesto and begin to listen to people whose ideas were not part of the thinking before PF got into government.
"And when they get derailed, they will fall into the same trap that MMD fell in," Dr Chiputa said.
He said if PF departed from its manifesto, it would start implementing other people's agendas which may not have the interests of Zambians at heart.
Dr Chiputa said the Zambian people looked at the PF manifesto critically and voted for them on the understanding that they turn the country around and make it a prosperous nation.
Dr Chiputa said Zambians were looking up to the PF to provide leadership that would lead to the country's prosperity.
And Dr Chiputa said his members had rejected the recently recommended four per cent salary increment by the government to all grant-aided institutions.
He said the UNZALARU members were of the view that the government should borrow what is in ruling party's manifesto.
"…Which says that when the PF forms government, it will ensure that conditions of service for academic staff in public universities will be equivalent to those in the universities of the sub region," he said.
Dr Chiputa said even if the staff were offered 20 per cent, it would be far from what is obtaining in the sub region.
Labels: EUSTON CHIPUTA, PF, UNZALARU
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Collum shooters should be tried in Zambia - Dr Chiputa
By Agness Changala
Thu 28 Oct. 2010, 03:59 CAT
UNIVERSITY of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) president Dr Euston Chiputa has charged that the recent shooting incident that occurred at the Chinese-run coal mine in Sinazongwe district has exposed the country’s failure to enforce its own laws.
Dr Chiputa said it was unacceptable that foreign investors coming into the country should begin to shoot at innocent Zambians. He said the two Chinese managers should be tried by the Zambian courts and if found guilty, they should be sentenced.
“I strongly disagree with fellow Zambians who are arguing that the two should be deported. They must face the law,” he said.
“Perhaps if they were diplomats they would be deported, but they are not.”
He said it was also unfortunate that leaders in Zambia only reacted when someone had been injured.
Dr Chiputa, like many others, recalled that a few years ago, former Southern Province minister Alice Simango shed tears at the pathetic conditions under which miners were operating at Collum Coal mine.
He observed that the shooting happened because leaders in the government had forgotten about the plight of the workers. Dr Chiputa said if the problems of poor conditions of service were looked into, the shooting would not have taken place.
On some government officials who were accusing the opposition and others commenting on the matter of being political, Dr Chiputa said being political on such a matter was inevitable.
“...And all Zambians who feel aggrieved deserve to talk about it,” said Dr Chiputa.
Two weeks ago, eleven workers at the Chinese-run Collum Coal Mine in Sinazongwe district were allegedly shot at and wounded by managers after they protested over poor conditions of service.
Among those who were shot and wounded was 20-year-old Vincent Chenjela, a grade eight pupil at Nkandabbwe Basic School in Sinazongwe. Chenjela went to work at the mine to raise school fees.
Labels: CHINESE COLLUM COAL MINE, EUSTON CHIPUTA, UNZALARU, VINCENT CHENJELA
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