DR M’membe writes….
University of Zambia (UNZA) Vice-Chancellor Prof Luke Mumba has responded via Facebook to what l wrote and posted on this page yesterday concerning the challenges of UNZA and the possible solutions. For those who may have missed it, below is Prof Mumba’s response to my post. Please note that l have quoted the reply verbatim.
“Luke Mumba:
With all due respect to President Membe, he should not mislead readers on this platform. He started his story very well by diagnosing correctly the challenges that Unza faces and he proposes practical solutions which have worked in universities in other countries. He however, loses his thoughts when he gets personal by attacking me.
He even goes further to mislead readers that the VC fired Dr Sishuwa Sishuwa. This is false. Let him take time to check the facts. The truth is that I approved Dr Sishuwa’s paid leave of absence which enabled him to proceed to UCT on his sponsored research fellowship.
When the leave of absence expired, I granted him a further leave but this time an unpaid leave in line with Unza procedures for such Special leave.
This was at his request. Dr Sishuwa retains his position in the University asxa Lecturer and will resume his work when his current special leave expires. Dr Sishuwa is still an employee of Unza and to my knowledge he is not facing any disciplinary action.
Mr President Sir, as a respected historian that you are an academician and a senior citizen, you should have taken time to check the facts around Dr Sishuwa’s status at Unza.
The public might also wish to know that Unza is audited annually by external auditors as well as by the Auditor General. Audited accounts are available for any interested stakeholder to verify. President Membe should stop speculating and causing an unnecessary alarm by making false allegations of mismanagement of resources.
Unza is insolvent as an institution and it has been in this state for over 10 years. The perrenial underfunding is the main source of unza’s woes. There is a huge mismatch between our expenditure which is now around K1.1 billon annually as compared to about K700 million in revenue. Unza’s statutory debt and debt to retirees and gratuities now stands at a colossal sum of K9.5 billion.
Inspite of this poor state of affairs financially, we still manage to raise 83% of salaries from our own internally generated resources to augment the 13% that comes from government in form of grants. Paying salaries has not been an easy task for management at Unza.
A survey of universities in the SADC region showd that we are the only country that is running public universities in this manner. Salaries in public universities in the SADC region are paid by governments on account that we offer a public good as public universities. We produce Human Resources that manage the economy in various sectors but we also conduct research and generate new knoeledhe which is a public good.
We are not a profit making organization and we are not structured as such. Yes, like any other modern university, we have business ventures to supplement our revenue but this is not our core mandate or business as a university.
Another milestone we have scored in the past 5 years is that we have moved Unza from number 55 in university rankings in 2016 to number 18 out of 200 universities in Africa. This is not a mean achievement and it can be ascribed to the excellent work of our researchers and staff in general.
Under our administration, Unza had seen multi million dollar infrastructure development projects which include the following, the Special Education Needs Centre, the Unza industrial printer, the New Teaching and Learning Complex, New lecture theatres in the School if Engineering, thrvnew Graduate School of Business Complex, the new African Centre of Excellence Building in the School of Vet Medicine, the New Lecture theatre at the School of Public Health.
Other projects include the ongoing construction of a 3KM perimeter wall fence around the GERC and the 100,000 cubic litre water reservoir at the new residences. These are unprecedented developments never recorded before at Unza.
Through this platform, I am inviting President Membe to visit Unza so that I can take time to explain to him the truth stake realities about our national university. Let him not rely rumours, innuendos and falsehoods. Let us keep petty politics out of our national university.
As an aspiring president for this country, we expect an honesty and truthful analysis of Unza challenges to come out from you Sir. Only the truth shall set all of us free.”
Please note: I will issue a response to the above in due course.