Future On Chanco Opening Begins Tuesday

The University of Malawi Council and the Chancellor College Academic Staff Union (CCASU) says they have finally identified the main problem prolonging their dispute and expresses hope for the fruitful discussion on Tuesday next week and make progress to end the dispute soon.

Concerned parties disclosed during media briefing on Friday in Lilongwe that failure to meet and cordially discuss their matter has been one of the major obstacle in the process of resolving the ongoing industrial strike by academic staff which began on March 20, 2017.

But now that Government has finally came in into the dispute as facilitator leading to Thursday meeting, parties have said they have managed to forge how they can resolve the matter and expressed hope that the meeting slated for Tuesday next week will be cordial and with one aim of resolving their misunderstanding.

Anthony Gunde

Anthony Gunde, CCASU President acknowledged that their dispute with the council has prolonged because they never met and cordially discussed their misunderstandings.

"Each party has been looking at this matter on different angle" he added then expressed hope that the coming in of Government as facilitator the meeting next week looks promising

"It was about us coming together. Now that Government has come in to bring us together is a positive development and this is what was missing" he noted

Nsapato

Limbani Eliya Nsapato, member of the council and the Taskforce made promise that “We are not only going into this dialogue process with an open mind but also positive attitude and committed for a positively outcome.”

Nsapato further assured that the council is very optimistic of positive outcome from Tuesday meeting because there has been assurances throughout Thursday discussions "that the trust which was lost has now been rebuilt". 

He added that reconstitution of 15 member taskforce which represents the council but also academic staff and also the Government representatives as facilitators will ensure that the key stakeholders in the dialogue are involved "and this should be able to bring out positive results."

Fabiano

Minister of Education, Science and Technology, Dr. Emmanuel Fabiano who presided over the conference denied critics that Government distanced itself from the matter. He said the matter at hand has been in existence for a long time and could have been resolved earlier if concerned parties had met and agreed to end their differences once and for all.

"It is lack of that discussion that has dragged the matter. If they had met earlier they could have resolved this matter much earlier. This is why we invited the two parties to meet." He said

However, Fabiano said Government cannot tell when the college will open and there are no pre-conditions from both employer and employee as they meet on Tuesday.

Temweka Gondwe a student representative in the university council reacted to the development; “I think this is a very good development”

She said the closure of Chanco has greatly affected the students.

“They keep on delaying the academic calendar and we have friends who have been in school since 2011 and that’s very unfair to the students. Much as they are saying they have been victimized but the students are the ones who have been victimized because they are staying in school longer than they planned and this is very unfair.” she lamented

On March 15, 2017, Chancellor College announced that classes for 2016/17 academic year were not to begin on 20th March 2017as earlier announced as support staff went on strike demanding equal pay with their fellow workers in public universities