Barotse Nationals Denied Accommodation At University of Zambia. Our independent reports have revealed that none among all the 571 first year students allocated official accommodation at the University of Zambia (UNZA) main campus in Lusaka this academic year is from Barotseland. Of the 4500 - 5000 total admittance into university at the highest learning institution of Zambia in the 2013 academic year, only 571 have been offered official university accommodation at the Lusaka campus. Of the 517 officially accommodated, 268 are female and 303 are male, and none of them are from Barotseland! Our reporter took time to investigate the story after hearing about it, and indeed discovered that not a single one from Barotseland has been offered accommodation at Zambias highest institution of learning officially. The procedure used to give rooms at UNZA is ‘first come first served.’ However, this procedure disadvantages many Barotseland students who are expected to travel long distances to come to Lusaka for the purposes of applying for accommodation space, and then go back to Barotseland and wait for the right time to report for normal classes. In many cases these students from Barotseland received their university admission acceptance letters very late, due to distance and communication challenges, making it difficult for one to apply for accommodation and hope to be allocated accommodation space at the institution on the first come first served basis. As a result many students rooms are allocated to Lusaka residents who later on rent them out to other students for as high as K3000 (USD545) to about K5000 (USD906) per term. Therefore, because of this pathetic situation, some students have resorted to looking for accommodation elsewhere in the surrounding townships such as Kalingalinga compound which is located about 2 kilometers away from the institution. However, Kalingalinga is not ideal for university students for study because it is a busy and noisy ‘shanty’ compound. Other places of choice include Kalundu, Mtendere, Handsworth with some coming as far as Chelstone, Kabwata and other places, especially if one has relations around Lusaka. The University of Zambia, the first public university in the country, was established by the University Act of 1965, and consequently opened in 1965. The University had an initial challenge of producing professional and trained human resource to meet the needs of the rapidly growing economy that characterized the post-independence period. It has, over the years, undergone a number of transformation regarding its governance and operations since the University of Zambia Act (No.66). Among the provisions of the Act, the Chancellorship of the University was vested in the Head of State. It started with three schools in 1966, namely Education, Humanities and Social Sciences with today running more than 7 schools. In its first academic year of 1966, the university enrolled 312 students, which number has increased to over 13000 students in 2013, without corresponding infrastructural capacity development. In Kalingalinga township, noise is not the only inconvenience for the students. Here students are exploited by landlords who charge students as high as K400 (USD74) to K800 (USD145) per bed space. A bed space is a space which can only allow for a single bed and a small study table. Female students are the most affected because males can sometimes make a group of 3 to about 5 students, and look for a room or house which they can rent per month as a group to share cost, which in most cases range from K700 (USD128) to K1000 (USD182) depending on the size of the accommodation found. Besides cost, the electricity supplied by Zesco (Zambias main and only utility power company) goes off nearly every day at around 18:30 hrs, only to come back on in some cases around 21:30 to 22:00hrs, making it very difficult for these students to study, write assignments and prepare their meals. Going to school to study in school library is not an option as they are afraid of been attacked by criminals in the university grounds in the after hours. Theft is also the order of the day as these students are targeted as they are believed to have more money than their township neighbors. Barotse nationals are among the most hit by this accommodation problem as they cannot afford these extra rental as most of them come from poor and impoverished families of Barotseland who may not even be in employment due to the Zambian government’s apparent deliberate policy of not creating jobs in Barotseland. Kalingalinga has become a second home for many Barotse nationals to the extent that it is not uncommon to assume that if one threw a pebble in the air, there is a higher chance that it would hit a Barotse national on the head than any other. Efforts to get clarification from the University of Zambia Students Union, UNZASU, secretary general Best Mambo and Dean of Students Affairs (DOSA) a Mr. L.T. Zgambo proved futile, and the only hope for now would be to ask parliamentarians from Barotseland, who are still serving in the Zambian parliament, to ask parliament whether it has become a Patriotic Front government policy to deny Barotse nationals accommodation. When this reporter asked some of the Lozi students what they thought about the new university to be called King Lewanika University, that Zambia’s President Michael Chilufya Sata announced will be built at Namushakande in Mongu, one student answered by saying that if Sata was really serious about helping them he could have taken BC (Bursaries Committee-in reference to Zambian government‘s policy of providing loans to students) to University of Barotseland (UBL) which is already operating in Barotseland. University of Barotseland (UBL) is a private owned university operating in Barotseland right now and enjoys support mostly from the locals as well as outsiders. Those paying for themselves preferred to be there as it is cheap and cost effective due to its nearness to their homes, and is even recommended by some of their friends who are pursuing their studies there. For those who may not know about the University of Barotseland (UBL), the university opened its doors to the public earlier this year (2013) and offers studies on parallel, distance and full time basis in the following programmes as per 2013/2014 academic year. See below: APPENDIX PROGRAMMES ON OFFER FOR THE 2013/14 ACADEMIC YEAR School of Education Bachelor of Arts with Education Bachelor of Arts with Education in Mathematics Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education School of Business Studies & Law Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Entrepreneurship Bachelor of Marketing Bachelor of Economics Bachelor of Accountancy Bachelor of Banking & Finance Bachelor of Human Resource Development and Management Bachelor of International Business Studies School of Humanities & Social Sciences Bachelor of Arts in Development Studies Bachelor of Arts in Social Work Bachelor of Arts in Gender and Development Bachelor of Arts in Information and Library Studies Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration Bachelor of Arts in Local Government School of Natural Resources Bachelor of Science in Natural Resources Management Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies Bachelor of Science in Land Management Bachelor of Science in Urban and Regional Planning - See more at: barotsepost/index.php/en/frontnews/local-news/571-barotse-nationals-denied-rooms-at-university-of-zambia#sthash.J6bMi8f6.dpuf
Posted on: Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:16:50 +0000
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