POLICE BLOCK UNZALARU PROTEST
THE University of Zambia Lecturers and Researchers’ Union yesterday failed to have a scheduled protest march to State House, after they were stopped by police.
UNZALARU had planned to protest over unpaid gratuities dating as far back to April, 2026, pensions dating back to 2016, remittance of statutory obligations such as NHIMA, NAPSA, ZRA, and Union subscriptions which have not been remitted for some time.
The Union argued that this has affected its internal affairs as they cannot address the welfare of its members.
Earlier, UNZALARU wrote to police, notifying them of the planned protest but were advised against going ahead.
Speaking after police stopped them from marching to State House, Friday, UNZALARU Secretary General Dominic Liche explained that the demonstration was aimed at seeking an audience with President Hichilema, to bring to his attention the long standing issues affecting his members.
“So, today we had a scheduled protest march to State House, where we wanted ourselves, as UNZALARU members, as well as other affected or aggrieved members, to have an audience with the Head of State. Having this audience with the Head of State, is to simply bring to his attention the long-standing issues that are affecting our members, namely; gratuities that have not been paid as far back as April 2016, pensions that have not been paid as far back as 2021 ZISK superannuation scheme that has not been paid as far back as 2012.
We also have problems with, remittance of statutory obligations, where NHIMA, NAPSA, even ZRA, are not being remitted on time. What this means is that some of our members who may want to use the NHIMA health insurance are unable to actually use this service, because NHIMA contributions are not being remitted on time,” he said.
“Also, we have problems with union subscriptions, which have not been remitted for a while now, what this means is that we cannot seriously address the welfare of our members, because we cannot, for example, guarantee their health through our in-house medical scheme. We cannot attend to emergencies should some arise, and so on, even just to operate as a union is a challenge. So, we feel that most of these problems can only be dealt with by government intervention in the institution.
If government can intervene, either through an increase in yearly annual grant or even liquidating the whole terminal benefits that are owed to members of staff at the University of Zambia, this would be helpful. As it stands now, our calculation is that if UNZA was to use internally generated resources to deal with most of these problems, it will take tens of years before these benefits are paid”.
He added that they were stopped by police and were told to the campus gate.
“The police, when we notified them they told us not to proceed. Today, we thought we could still exercise our freedom of expression and assembly and proceed, as such, but just here at the entrance of, Great East Road and UNZA, we have actually been stopped by the police, who have also advised us to go back and so now we are going back into campus,” he said.
Liche further disclosed that the members had resolved to withold student results due to the university owing them.
“So, if we know a different issue the thing is that there are certain union subscriptions that are owed to us, allowances that are owed to us, we thought since we have already worked for these allowances, what would be prudent is that, management pays us these allowances, so that we can move on also. We cannot just be owed and nothing is being done. So, the decision to withhold results was as a result of that,” said Liche.
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