THEY’RE TRAITORS

THEY’RE TRAITORS 

…UNZASU praise singers have betrayed Zambians – activist

• It is total madness for students to suggest that Hichilema has turned Zambia into a paradise when the opposite is true
• It was a dark cloud for Zambia to see students march to State House, betraying public trust and trading the truth for praise instead of holding leaders accountable for their failed promises.

 By George Zulu

THE University of Zambia (UNZA) students who thronged State House a few days ago are traitors who missed an opportunity to hold those in power accountable by joining praise singers, a political activist has said.

And 2026 Socialist Party (SP) presidential candidate Dr Fred M’membe has warned President Hakainde Hichilema against turning universities and colleges into political breeding grounds.

Michael Phiri said it was a dark cloud for Zambia to see students march to State House, betraying public trust and trading the truth for praise instead of holding leaders accountable for their failed promises.

“The University of Zambia has long stood as the intellectual heartbeat of our nation, a place where leaders are molded and truth is spoken fearlessly to power. Yet, just last week, UNZASU [University of Zambia Students Union] leaders led students not in defence of their suffering parents or in protest of broken promises, but in song and dance to State House, showering President Hakainde Hichilema with praises,” Phiri said.

He said it was troubling for many parents who were struggling to meet students’ needs to see their children willfully praise a failed regime.

Phiri said the students who marched to State House to shower Hichilema with praise failed their parents and betrayed society.

“It is the democratic right of students to assemble, to march and to support a leader of their choice. What is deeply troubling, however, is the willful blindness to reality. Instead of raising the pressing concerns facing their own families and the nation at large, UNZASU leaders became part of a staged performance painting failure as success and illusion as reality,” he said.

He wondered what Hichilema had fixed in the last four years of being in power, apart from making the lives of poor Zambians unbearable.

Phiri said Hichilema had led a government that had borrowed more than any other leader in the past, increased load shedding and destroyed many things.

“For four years, Zambians have lived under the promise of ‘Bally will fix it’. But what has been fixed? Fuel prices rise almost monthly. Borrowing balloons with two supplementary budgets every year. Load shedding has returned, even crippling UNZA’s own learning environment. The cost of living has left parents broken, unable to afford the basics for their families. The Cyber Security and Cyber Crimes Act has gagged citizens. Democracy itself is under siege, with opposition voices silenced and ECZ [Electoral Commission of Zambia] accused of preparing the ground for a one-party contest in 2026,” he said.

He said that it was total madness for students to suggest that Hichilema had turned Zambia into a paradise when the opposite was true.

“And yet, UNZASU’s new leadership declared Zambia is ‘steadily becoming a paradise on earth’. A paradise?  A paradise where students return home only to find their families in despair, crushed by high mealie meal prices, fuel hikes and unemployment? A paradise where young people graduate into hopelessness, with no jobs and no empowerment?” Phiri said.

He noted that the students’ march to State House was more than a political misstep and a betrayal.

He said the students failed to question Hichilema’s campaign promises of 2021, which remained unfulfilled.

“UNZASU offered him comfort. Instead of defending the voices of the grassroots, they echoed the chorus of the ruling elite. Instead of holding him accountable for the destruction of democratic space through bills 7 and 13, they chose to serenade him with borrowed words of praise. What kind of graduates are we producing at UNZA if our brightest minds cannot see failure for what it is? What kind of intellectuals celebrate hardship as achievement and deception as progress?” Phiri said.

He said history would judge this generation of student leaders harshly for their failure to defend the country.

“They had the golden opportunity to speak truth to power. To remind the head of state that his leadership has left parents crying for change in 2026. To demand accountability on the economy, education, democracy and environmental safety. But instead, they traded truth for theatrics and responsibility for rhetoric,” Phiri said.

On Tuesday, the newly elected UNZASU leadership led thousands of fellow students to State House to sing praises for Hichilema and his government.

But the march and State House rally have drawn widespread condemnation from a cross-section of the Zambian society as a betrayal of the people of Zambia who are groaning under the highest cost of living ever, unprecedented corruption, high fuel prices and the worst load shedding of electricity ever.

And Dr M’membe warned Hichilema against turning universities and colleges in the country into political breeding grounds.

He said institutions of higher learning should never be turned into political playgrounds, urging Zambians, particularly the academia, to take a keen interest in what was being done at the University of Zambia (UNZA).

“While Mr Hichilema and the UPND are at liberty to recruit and mobilize the young people for political support, it must never be done in a manner that is destructive, divisive, and detrimental to the integrity and well-being of our higher institutions of learning. We say this because we have noticed a very disturbing and retrogressive pattern forming around this issue.

UNZA and indeed all institutions of higher education in this country must not be reduced to arenas of cheap caderism and partisan politics. It must be recognized that these are spaces for intellectual development, knowledge sharing, research, and the pursuit of national progress, and not political patronage or political influence,” he said.

He appealed to the students at UNZA and elsewhere throughout the country not to allow themselves to be exploited for temporary gains or cheap handouts.

“It is also high time Mr Hichilema and the UPND realized that state interference in student politics risks undermining the credibility and ability of universities to serve their true purpose.,” he said.