CSOs, students secret meetings exposed

SOME civil society organisations have been holding secret meetings with students to plot unrest, through protests, the Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU) has revealed.

And Zambia National Students Union (ZANASU) has warned civil society organisations who want to fund students to cause unrest in the country that things will not go well with them.

“Unfortunately, some of the student bodies and leaders leading efforts to recruit students are the same ones who have been sharing coffee with the Minister of Higher Education,” Union president Misheck Kakonde said.

Mr Kakonde said the issues which civil society organizations want to engage students to protest against and cause unrest in the country were issues that could be dealt with through dialogue.

The organisers of protests are giving seven issues as a point of engagement such as gold mining, corruption, Zambia’s debt, lack of observance of human rights by Chinese investors, lack of youth empowerment, the shrinking media space and freedom of speech which can be dealt with by engaging authorities.’’

The issues of Zambia’s debt and Chinese treatment of our people, Mr Kakonde said, including other matters were issues which must be a subject of discussion and there was no reason to create unrest in the country.

He told the Daily Nation yesterday, students must avoid being used in protests or activities that may set the nation on fire or end up destroying their own lives.

“As much as we believe in the right to demonstrations, ZANASU believes in putting dialogue first,” he said.

‘‘The environment is not ripe for holding of peaceful demonstration as protest must have a clear underlying reason. The planned demonstration has no clear goals and will just end up into a riot if not well managed where lives and property will be destroyed,’’ he said