The University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers’ Union (UNZALARU) has called on the Government to urgently remit the financial grants due to the University of Zambia in order to avoid any disruption of academic operations at the nation’s highest learning institution.

The University of Zambia survives on internally generated resources and a monthly grant from the Government totalling K39 million.

Of this amount, K15 million represents tuition fees from those students sponsored by the Government.
UNZALARU General Secretary Kelvin Mambwe tells Money FM News that the Government has hardly paid its monthly statutory commitments to UNZA on time.

“It is this delay which, earlier this year, forced the University Management to rely on overdrafts through a commercial bank, to pay salaries of employees. This is a very unsustainable and expensive initiative but one that Management had to undertake to ensure industrial harmony at the institution,” he said.

He laments that from August 2018, however, the Government stopped paying the grant altogether for unexplained reasons.

Mr. Mambwe explains that this is the reason that the University, which is not in a position to pay staff salaries from internally generated resources alone, is now on the verge of industrial unrest with potentially adverse consequences to its calendar, performance and ranking.

He says even commercial banks are now reluctant to extend overdrafts to the University, owing to the unpaid arrears occasioned by the Government’s unexplained failure to remit the statutory grants for August and September.

“The staff at the University of Zambia have been accustomed to neglect from the Government, but it appears that this neglect is now becoming an actual policy. UNZALARU members have not been paid their salaries for September and there is no indication when they will be paid,” Mr. Mambwe said.

He says this issue does not only affect University staff but all government employees.