Front PageNational News

Mzuni management, students fight over allowances

Mzuzu University (Mzuni) government sponsored students have accused management of duping them upkeep allowance, a development that has brought commotion at the school on Monday.

Students went wild on Saturday and Monday blocking M1 road protesting management decision to give some of the students K24 000 (about $48), K21 000 (about $42) and K19 000 (about $38) as upkeep for allowance for December.

mzuniThe students claim they are entitled to K40 000 (about $80) per month but management wants to dupe them adding other students were yet get their allowances.

This is the second time students and management have been engaged in battle over a cut on allowances. Last year, it took the intervention of government to force management to pay the students K10 000 (about $20) each.

On both days, it took the intervention of heavily armed police to foil the protests.

Police used tear-gas to disperse the students who caused mayhem on the road.

Mzuni Students Representative Council (Musrec) president Godknows Mwale on Monday said management has developed some strange habit of clinging to students allowances towards the end of the semester.

He said students never expected management to repeat the same mistake it made last year that saw government coming to the rescue of the students.

“As students we expected to get K40 000 but management has reduced the sum because we are closing on 19th,” he said. Mwale adds that student entitlement per semester is K160 000. “But to our surprise management does not want to give us the remaining K40 000”.

Northern Region Police spokesperson Maurice Chapola said they since arrested four students on Saturday but were released on police bail.

“Our officers are still at the scene [on Monday] trying to control the situation. Some arrests have been made but I am yet to get the actual figure,” said Chapola.

Mzuni vice chancellor Robert Ridley said there is a directive from government to give the allowances on pro-rata basis.

He said since the semester ends on December 19 there is no justification to give the students the K40 000 allowance.

“The communication was made in August this year. It is not just for Mzuzu University, it is for all public universities that allowances be given on pro-rata basis,” said Ridley.

Related Articles

Back to top button