CSOs Stand With UNZALARU Following Deregistration
The recognition agreement between the University of Zambia (UNZA) management and the University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers Union (UNZALARU) was terminated by the Ministry of Labour earlier this month.
This week civil society organizations have come together to criticise the move and warn about moves to authoritarianism.
A joint statement released by Linda Kasonde’s Chapter One Foundation along with the Alliance for Community Action, CTPD, NGOCC, ActionAid, CiSCA, GEARS and Caritas Zambia stated, “Whilst civility is encouraged in engaging with the government, the attempt to abolish UNZALARU appears to be a measure to curb dissent. This is worrying in a country that purports to be a democracy where the market place of ideas should be allowed to flourish and where criticism of government should be a natural part of the democratic discourse. We further note that the trend by the government to try and silence critical voices in the country is growing,”
“Most notably, in the recent past, the government attempted to dissolve the Law Association of Zambia and to abolish student unions at our public universities. It is our considered view that such attempts to stifle alternative perspectives and provision of checks and balances can lead to the emergence of authoritarianism and the continued shrinking of the civic space. We therefore wish to call on government to immediately halt this trend and allow citizens to freely participate in the governance processes of our country at various levels. This is every citizen’s treasured right and freedom in the spirit of leaving no one behind. We stand in solidarity with UNZALARU and wish to reiterate our resolve and commitment as part of the larger civil society, to continue championing the entrenchment of tenets of democracy and good governance in Zambia.”
Analyst and lecturer Sishuwa Sishuwa has also questioned the motives behind the move writing, “The real reason why the government has terminated the Recognition Agreement between UNZA Management and UNZALARU is that doing so offered President Edgar Lungu’s administration the much-awaited opportunity to undermine the last bastion of independent thinking and cripple a trade union that has helped expose the government’s precarious financial position. It is no secret that the government is broke and largely unable to meet its obligations, such as paying the salaries of public sector employees promptly and the timely release of money to grant-aided institutions. Academics are not the only ones affected by this near bankruptcy, caused largely by grand corruption in government, wastefulness, outright incompetence, and debt repayment. Council workers and post office employees, for instance, have gone for months without pay, causing huge problems for thousands of Zambians who have their own financial commitments to meet every month.”
“One difference for academics is that they have an effective organisation that has repeatedly drawn the public’s attention to the government’s failure to meet its fiscal commitments. This is an ongoing embarrassment for the government, but rather than attempt to fix the underlying problem – one that seriously first emerged in early 2019 – they have instead moved to silence the critics like UNZALARU.”
Staff have faced a number of challenges including repeated salary delays, unpaid gratuities and unpaid pension and NAPSA contributions.
UNZALARU is challenging the termination in court.
