CBU Unions Accuse VC of Witch-Hunting Those Who Passed No Confidence Vote In Him

THE three Copperbelt University unions say the institution’s vice chancellor Professor Naison Ngoma has gone on a witch-hunt to silence the voices of all employees who passed a vote of no confidence in him.

On January 10, 2018, CBU workers and the three unions (CUSATU, CBUAU and CBUAWU) passed a vote of no confidence in Prof Ngoma and his management, accusing them of abusing the university’s funds.

During a media briefing on Tuesday, the unions’ representative Derrick Ntalasha said Prof Ngoma had continued to charge and illegally suspend members of staff that had attended the meeting that came up with a no confidence vote.

“The professor has continued to charge and suspend workers who passed a vote of no confidence in him and it is important that the nation knows that we had written to the caretaker committee which is in charge of running the affairs of CBU, highlighting the problems at the public institution, but still he has continued to illegally suspend the workers and putting them on half salaries,” Ntalasha said.

He said the illegal suspensions and putting workers on half salaries for 15 days was a violation of the higher education Act of 2013.

“We declared a dispute and we wrote to management requesting for a meeting in order to resolve the issue but management disregarded this with impunity and continued with its wanton disregard of the law by charging and suspending unionised employees and we have written to the Labour Commissioner to request the Minister of Labour to appoint a conciliator from a list of proposed names but even with this action, the vice chancellor has continued to look for workers to suspend and charge,” said Ntalasha.

“We are extremely concerned with these developments because even when the university is ready to open, there will be no one to attend to or teach the students because we are being threatened. But I must say that we will not be intimidated and the Zambians must witness what the members of staff have been saying all along that Prof Ngoma does not know the path of dialogue which is the core in managing public institutions of higher learning…”

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