Ex-COBUSU leader wants meal allowances maintained

FORMER Copperbelt University (CBU) students’ leader Gershom Phiri has urged Government not to scrap off meal allowances at the two Government universities in the country.

Mr Phiri said the Government had the capacity to continue paying meal allowances to vulnerable students at CBU and University of Zambia (UNZA).

He said in an interview in Ndola yesterday that Government should continue with the facility and recover the money when the students start their work in industry.

Mr Phiri is former Copperbelt University Students Union (COBUSU) President.

“Government can manage to fund student’s allowances by reducing cost exaggeration on public funded projects,” he said.

Mr Phiri a number of vulnerable students will be negatively affected, hence the imperative need to reconsider the action.

He said most of the students used the same allowances to pay for other expenses not covered by the Government bursary.

“Due to the accommodation crisis coming from a fact that the university does not have the capacity to accommodate most of them, students use part of the meal allowance to pay for cheap accommodation,“he said.

Mr Phiri said Government must appreciate that many students have graduated through such survival means.