Students fail to file petition
ZAMBIA National Student Union (ZANASU) failed to file in a petition in the Constitutional Court yesterday, in a matter in which it had wanted to challenge the Minister of Higher Education and Learning’s decision to ban all union activities at the University of Zambia.
ZANASU president Joseph Busenga said the petition could not be filed due to technicalities on the cover letter of the petition were they sued in their individual capacity and through the secretary-general of the union.
Mr Busenga said the petition would not be withdrawn and that there was need for amendments on the petition for it to be accepted by the court.
“The status of the petition is that we need to make a few amendments on the cover letter in particular because we do not want the Constitutional Court to throw it out based on technicalities, so we’ve been advised to go back and make a few changes here and there.
“We are not withdrawing, we are simply going back to draft it again,” he said.
Mr Busenga said it was through the union that students were able to communicate effectively with management and thus Prof Luo’s decision was wrong.
“We students are vessels of peace, we believe that dialogue can bring about change and that is why we refuse to be silenced by banning all union activities,” he said.
On May 29th 2017, the minister Professor Nkandu Luo suspended all union activities at UNZA as she was disappointed with the riotous behaviour of the students.
Professor Luo said, investigations had revealed that the perpetrators of the riot were students that are aspiring for union positions and wanted to rally support.
Prof Luo said union activities will remain suspended until further notice as they are becoming a threat to peace at the learning institution.
“We have discovered that these riots are organised by students who aspire to be union leaders. I will use my authority which is within the Act to suspend all union activities until further notice,” she said.