AT LEAST $5 BILLION HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM THE ZAMBIAN TREASURY IN PAST 4 YEARS: THE UNZA TOILET CRISIS IS MERELY A SYMPTOM OF A WIDER PROBLEM
By Sean E. Tembo MBA, BAcc, FCCA, FCPA, FZICA – PeP President & 2026 Presidential Candidate
1. Yesterday, students at the University of Zambia protested against poor sanitation at the institution. Or to put it more succinctly, they protested against stinking toilets and blocked sewer systems. Many students complained that they have to walk to nearby shopping malls at East Park and Arcades, whenever they want to answer the call of nature. The student protests, which momentarily blocked Great East Road, has elicited a flurry of responses from the UPND Government, including an emergency cabinet meeting by President Hakainde Hichilema, as well as dispatching a team from the Zambia National Service (ZNS), to assess and resolve the sanitation problem at UNZA.
2. In the past 24 hours since the students protested, I have read all sorts of commentaries about this issue. Others are questioning why it has to take an entire Republican President and his cabinet, to intervene over something that is supposed to be a routine administrative issue at the University? Many are asking why the UNZA Management has not been fired. Others are asking why the Minister of Education has not been fired? Well, even though I am not part of Government, I can answer you why neither the UNZA Management nor the Minister of Education have been fired. Because it is not their fault that UNZA has had stinking toilets and blocked sewer for the past couple of years.
3. The University of Zambia, just like many other institutions across the country, have not been funded by Government, for the past couple of years. Those of you who pay attention to the happenings in this country, may have noticed that about a week or two ago, lecturers and allied workers at Chipata Trades Training Institute, were protesting against unpaid salaries. These are some of the symptoms of Government’s failure to fund these institutions.
The funding model for UNZA, just like other tertiary institutions, is that Government has to pay for the students who have been given Student loans by the Higher Education Loans and Scholarships Board (HELSB), and also additionally provide grants to these institutions. Well, neither the scholarship funds nor the grants, are remitted to UNZA by Government. That means the only income available to UNZA, is money paid by self-sponsored students. Which obviously is not enough to run the institution. That is why, as we speak, UNZA owes more than K20 billion in unremitted statutory obligations to ZRA, NAPSA, NHIMA, etcetera. As well as billions more in unpaid gratuities to members of staff, on top of other creditors. If UNZA was a private company, it would have been declared insolvent by now.
4. However, every year, we have a National Budget, and in that National Budget, we have an allocation of money for operations of tertiary institutions such as UNZA and Chipata Trades Training Institute, as well as an allocation of money for infrastructure development of tertiary institutions. Towards the end of the fiscal year, around October, the Minister of Finance often goes back to Parliament to request for a supplementary budget. What the Minister is basically saying, when he requests for a supplementary budget, is that we spent more than we had allocated in the National Budget, and therefore, we are asking for more money. And yet, on the ground, the institutions on which the Minister is saying he has spent more than was allocated, tell us that they have not received a single Ngwee, to the extent that they can’t even engage a cleaning company to clean students toilets! So, where does the money really go?
5. Before we go further, let me give you specific practical examples. On page 26 of the 2026 National Budget that was presented to Parliament on 26th September 2025, there is an allocation of K2,290,040,294.00 for university infrastructure. Similarly, in the 2025 National Budget, presented to Parliament on 27th September 2024, on page 26, there is an allocation for university infrastructure of K2,581,243,469.00.
The National Budgets for 2024, 2023 and 2022 have allocations for university infrastructure of K1,584,812,163.00, K1,504,847,894.00 and K694,331,744.00 respectively. That’s a total of more than K8 billion which the Government claims to have spent on University infrastructure, in the past few years, and yet, the UNZA hostels that were commenced by the previous PF regime, remain incomplete to date.
I personally do not know of any infrastructure project that has been undertaken at any of the Government tertiary institutions in the past four years. Neither am I aware of any new college or university being constructed by Government in the past four years. So where did the more than K8 billion that the Government claims to have spent on tertiary infrastructure, go?
6. The above pattern applies to almost all Government departments in the past few years. For example, according to the National Budgets for 2022-2026, Government claims to have spent more than K70 billion on road infrastructure. That is approximately $3.5 billion. And yet, apart from the 3 kilometer Makishi Road project, and the about 20 kilometer road project covering main street in Ibex, parts of Acacia road in Avondale and about 3 kilometers of District road, I don’t know of any other new road infrastructure that the UPND Government has implemented across Zambia. Let alone anything that can be worth $3.5 billion. Not even $100 million.
Mind you, the K70 billion allocation is for new roads, there is a separate allocation for maintenance. You cannot count the Lusaka-Ndola dual carriage road project, because it is funded by NAPSA under a different budget line. You cannot count the Chingola-Chililabombwe or Ndola-Sakanya Border roads or indeed any other road projects, because they’re all funded under PPP model, outside of the National Budget. So, where did the money go?
7. Over the past 4 years or so, we have witnessed a systematic pattern whereby the Government claims to have spent specific huge amounts, and yet, there is no actual expenditure on the ground. Sometime around early last year, Government claimed to have spent hundreds of millions of Kwacha on mobile NRC registration. And yet, the young men and women who participated in that exercise still flood my inbox, asking me to talk for them, because they have not been paid. So, where did the money go?
8. Under the previous PF regime, theft of public funds took the form of inflated tenders. We saw the Government paying $1 million for a fire truck that looked like a wheelbarrow. However, under the current UPND Government, theft is rarely through inflated tenders, because there are very few projects anyway. The new way of stealing public funds is that the money just disappears. Under the claim that it was spent.
In my estimation, as someone who is not only a Chartered Accountant and Statutory Auditor, but also someone who has prepared Alternative National Budgets for the past 9 years, and therefore understands how the national treasury system works, I believe that at least US$5 billion (K100 billion) has been pocketed ever since the UPND came into office.
The only question is; which individuals have pocketed this money? The sad part is that no one seems to pay attention. Unless the smell of the toilets at UNZA blows in the direction State House. Then we see emergency cabinet meetings being convened, and a flurry of other activities. Realizing that their cover-up could be exposed. Any, the Future is SET ✌🏽
///END
SET 01.04.2026