Prolonged Closure of Public Universities is Proof Government is Broke – Sinkamba
By Staff Reporter
Opposition Green Party president Peter Sinkamba has urged government to own up and admit that there is no money to run the two public universities instead of giving excuses that cannot be sustained.
In a statement issued to newsdayzambia.com this morning Sinkamba said there was more honour in telling the truth as a leader than telling lies and giving lame excuses.
“As leaders, we need to be men and women of honour. We need to be truthful in our dealings and messages to the people we lead. We need to be magnanimous all the time,” he said.
“This issue of closure of universities all started with failure to pay bursaries and salaries as CBU and UNZA leading to closures. Government blamed students and lecturers, and yet it is government leaders that are wholly responsible for disbursement of funds later than scheduled times”.
He said a range excuses and explanations have been made to justify the continued closure of the two institutions.
“Then there came the story of cholera and subsequently poor state of ablution facilities. Then came the excuses of FIMS breakdown, ill-qualified lecturers, etc. I think we need a break from these lame excuses,” said Sinkamba
He said it was an insult to the intelligence of the masses to continue giving a litany of excuses as future of the nation was dependent on the caliber of university graduates produced.
“You cannot send a student for more than three months and expect smooth transition into next academic schedules. You must be a joker to think like that,” Sinkamba said.
He added that the issue of bursary and salary management in universities has been problematic for decades and it is surprising that people that were academicians before, and were now running the education system were even worse off.
“It is not the first time that the bursary programme has been embarked on. It has been there since independence and ran smoothly until the late 1980s. Some of us were expelled as student leaders in the 1980s championing improvement of the system. So, we understand the system very well,” he said.
Sinkamba said the problem of prolonged closure of universities had nothing to do with all the excuses being floated around.
