There is no end in sight to the Mzuzu University (Mzuni) staff strike as government has disclosed that it has no money to meet the 35 percent salary increment demanded by the university employees.
For weeks, academic and nonacademic staff at the university have been striking to force authorities to increase their monthly pay.
The strike forced the Mzuni management to close the university last week, something which education minister Emmanuel Fabiano has said is the fault of the university council.
Commenting on the demand, the university’s deputy vice chancellor Loveness Kaunda said they are yet to reach an agreement with the workers as the university is sailing on the ocean of financial woes.
Kaunda added that the government has also disclosed that it does not have the needed K1.5 billion for the salary increment.
“That’s too much money and we can’t get it in short time and government has no money as well and we feel that we have a very big problem,” said Kaunda.
She added that Mzuni will have income generating activities to end financial challenges that have marred the university.
The university’s students have since called on President Peter Mutharika to intervene on the issue.
Every department had it’s budgetary allocation and they can buy whatever they feel necessary to buy. Don’t be selfish to start attacking ether departments like state house to divert their allocated money to ministry of education. This is a university and it makes one wonders how are they failing to come up with extra carricula activities to meet their deficit? This is politics at its best. The budget had already been passed, and the people are resisting to fee hikes and tax introductions, where is the money going to come from? Donors? I thought they left us. If these institutions of higher learning are on the lead misleading us where is our hope for self reliance?
People, especially from the north and the weak minded have already started mumbling on APM’s empowering of the public Universities councils. The problem arises because of our fear of unknown, especially as we watch the future uncertainties out of the usual business. The reason behind is that the opposition parties use public universities to unleash hell to the party that beat them in an election through famous pay hike strikes. Since the government is trying to distance itself from the running of affairs to run away from this childish behaviour, there is cause of worry and panic in most pro- opposition lecturers. This is squeezing them to the wall limiting their involvement in pressing on their political archrivals. It is quiet strange to see that all alone university strikes are championed by government owned schools not the private ones. One may wonder why this is so. Is it that some of them own private universities or do they go and offer part time lectures. To make matters worse these educated persons are better placed to understand public reforms than a layman. How do they not understand what their government is pushing for? May be I’m on the wrong side, do they get different perks from the same qualifications in other government departments? Or their aim is to vanquish their deemed evil out of civil service reforms? Another problem is that most deemed intelligent students who end up lecturing get their lucky through indirect corruption of black magic and use of past papers hence unable to come up with their own means of making ends meet, but always relying on the government. For them wrestling with the council will make them cowards, but when always fighting the government they feel honoured because they get cheered and back patting by their party leaders. Take it or not, there is a lot of politics in public universities from lecturers to students. Is this another UNIMA trivia? It’s fascinating to note how these respected institutions are failing to make up extra curricula programmes to meet their budgetary deficits. Ikakhala Nyasa Times ndiye yapezerapo polembera mabodza a kwa aTumbuka amzawo. Why this online publication blocks comments from other viewers by always hiding the catche code? This shows that they always write fake stories aimed at brainwashing their fellow Tumbukas not us. Remember we are running our budget on ZERO aid. ‘Let’s hike the students fees’- ‘Aaah! Aaah’! ‘The court ruled in favour of students to pay K55000/year’- ‘Yes, nice ruling’! ‘Lecturers want 35% salary increase and the government says it has no money’, ‘Aaah! Aaah’! Where will the money come from? Falling from heaven? We need logical thinking here and put politics aside. We even run away from paying taxes, oh democracy you have ruined our people. Atumbuka mudakalirirabe mbava zanu zija zinatilowesa mu zero aid? Amzanunso aku Poly akufuna azayambe sitilaki yawo chifukwa cholirira Masiten Cashgate in the name of pay hike. Komabe you will have another shocker come 2019. Ministry of education had its budgetary allocation and to start asking for state house’s is unwise.Nawo astate house zawo akhoza kugulira galimoto ndi budget yawo allocated to them by parliament.
BT it has money for buying luxurious cars…
The Stand off will continue kkkkkkkkkkkk
thats our government no salary incriment for teachers bt money for luxiary cars
Which luxuries r u talking about?
Iwonjezere basi.A change must take place they can not rely on the same amount of salary that they have had been recieving for 5yrs ago.Even me i demand wage increament after every 3 weaks.
U dot force your boss to increase your salary. If u r nt happy just go and start your own business.
It is an adamant mind be a revolutionary person.
But they have money on buying new cars
kkkkk..thats it
Crooks
Do u know how much is the land cruiser? Pls sometimes lets b honest.
Its how much Enoch ?
Demo Will Solve Everthing, We Will Meet Them On The Road
kkkkkkk..lets pray that u should not meet a bullet there.kkkk
Koma Gif
Is it a question of poor planning? In the civil service we used to have annual increments (that time enough to offset inflationary effects ) to keep and maintain the buying power of a salary. What had happened to that system? In those days the budget on salaries was never tampered with.