The Zambian police have taken 10 individuals into custody in connection with the recent riots that took place at the University of Zambia (UNZA) last night. Among those detained are five UNZA students, while the remaining five are from various residential areas.
The riots, which involved more than 500 students, erupted as a result of the cancellation of the 2023 UNZA Students Union elections due to financial constraints. These students took to the streets, blocking Great East Road with drums, stones, and burning tires, and even stoning motor vehicles.
During the course of the riots, several shops within the university premises were broken into, and various groceries were looted. The exact value of the stolen items has yet to be determined.
Police spokesperson Rae Hamoonga has confirmed that quick police action helped prevent the situation from escalating further. Currently, police officers are deployed around the UNZA campus to monitor the situation closely.
One female student, identified as Twambo aged 22 and a first-year psychology student, sustained injuries to her right hand and complained of general body pains during the unrest.
Investigations into the matter are ongoing, and further details regarding the charges these individuals may face will be revealed as the case develops.
People are funny. One moment HH gives them the meal money from some pocket… there’s jubilation…. next moment there’s no money for elections there’s tribulations.
This @ Deja Vu is becoming smart!
But I think tribulations are in Mumbwa and Kasempa. The ZP only arrest people of Lusaka.
How on earth is this country ever going to develop? I don’t think I can ever recall a time when UNZA students went on riot during UNIP time. KK the visionary even appointed himself as chancellor to make sure the institution produced men and women to take our country forward. Unfortunately the beneficiaries are now the ones destroying this institution. This is one institution that should be heavily funded deliberately to plug the skills shortage gap in the country. UNZA budget should be at least $1 billion a year. Students should concentrate on learning and being creative instead of being used as cadres for political milage. We are sick and tired of this madn3ss.
KK a visionary ??? When he brought the country to its knees
The mind boggles
The University of Zambia closed many times when Kenneth Kaunda was in office. In fact the ugly culture of intolerance among student leaders is unchanged since Kaunda’s time.
Get your facts right, it was not KK who brought the country to it’s Knees, it’s the same people people you are praising as champions of democracy. What is going on in Zimbabwe is exactly what happened to Zambia but we never learn. We just think of doing the same things and expecting different results. UNZA was created after independence. Imagine over 400 year of colonisation, no hospitals or university but the same people are promising you the world today.
@Tikki KK was a great visionary that if other African nations had we would be at the level of the Asian Tigers by now, our infrastructure and economy was brought down by Chiluba and we have never recovered since then. @Futurezed with all fairness UNZA did demonstrate several times during the UNIP days, of significance was in 1975 against Zambia’s perceived support of UNITA, and in 1990 against the high cost of mealie meal in which one student was shot, this further escalated into nationwide riots that saw the Luchembe coup and ushering in of multi party politics. However UNZA students would years later come back to be the main supporters of KK during the fake coup and zero option allegations against him by the repressive Kafupi regime.
Futurezed, 400 years colonization!
60 years of independence!
Isn’t it time we stopped blaming others for our economic woes? Who stops us from trading with each other for instance?
Are tgese colonizers also responsible for our corruption? Embezzlements? Laziness? Distribution/collection of basics like maize, farm implements etc? Ut is ourselves, our incompetence, and perhaps – and I say perhaps because we elect the for the price if chitenge and a few Kwachas – our political leaders. Please lets stop looking fir blame elsewhere and look at ourselves first.
Why stoning innocent motorists and looting shops as if they were involved in your elections. Those motorists and shopkeepers must take their bills to unza so that they can be compensated by deducting from the students meal allowance.
Arresting them won’t solve the various problems under this government. Hh lied and gave over ambitious promises to the electorate. The people have now realised that we in pf were telling them the truth. They want us back. 2026 we are coming back
Kalya nyoko, the funds for running UNZASU have come from the government. The students always paid a portion of their bursaries to support the expenses of Unzasu. Those dues were taken out of HH’s bursary; they were taken out of mine. I know this because HH and I were students at UNZA at the same time. You would never know this because you are an illiterate, who has got rich by stealing from the government. You have never been a university student anywhere in your life. You can confirm what I am saying by asking bucktoothed hero Chagwa, he was a student at UNZA before my time.
You think you are special because you merely attended unza. I became advisor to president without going to unza. What did your failing backside achieve? Fuseke you f00Iish upnd thug
You cow! You thieves. You should be the last people to comment on the economy. You behave like a thief who breaks into a home and steals then returns during the day to criticize the home owner for getting his/her home broken into. God exact vengeance to you and your fellow PF for destroying our beloved Zambia. You may fool some people. You don.’t fool all of us.
Whats up there in Zambia? I have seen this story on ZO and the ages of the students are puzzling me. These 22 and 23 year olds are in the first year? I left UNZA at age 20 with my BSc. Why are old women and men of that age rioting? At that age you should be focused.
Itizi tulu. Karen nibamature? But like you say ba mature sibarioter
Itizi tulu. Kapena nibamature? But like you say ba mature sibarioter
and we rush to China or USA thinking that they’re our messiahs….UNZA is decaying…the toilets are non functional…students go to the shopping malls to relive themselves….and we saying Zambia is developing
The problem is wide scale……..
Even in all zambian languages…….
There is no equivalent word for maintenance…….
Africans don’t do maintenance
Spaka may be in your language. In mine there’s
Damn!!!! You should not have voted for the tribalists from your province. The took the money for maintaining Unza used to build what they claim were universities in their villages.
UPND should cancel CDF and let government bodies function normally. The effects of diverting money from other organs of government and use it to appease UPND cadres inform of CDF will bring disaster to this Country. I would rather have medicines in Hospitals, affordable food, affordable fuel than have someone come and build a cheap classroom block or toilet in my community. CDF will never build anything tangible but just have the likes of Imenda show there ugly faces in my neighborhood to commission a toilet.
CDF is just another uubomba mwibala scum.
A person deprived of a decent education produces no good even when they ascend to power. Education is suppose to ground you and assist fill in the gaps that the poverty of the mind preoccupies itself with. There can never be a substitute to education regardless of how much one believes they have achieved! The bottomline is what type of education do you hunger for…
They were fighting for what belongs to them.