ON THE DELINKING OF UNIMA — CALL TO DISSOLVE AND RECONSTITUTE THE COUNCIL
Lilongwe — Wednesday, 18 th February, 2021
We, at the Civil Society Education Coalition (CSEC), welcome the decision by the Malawi government to proceed with the delinking of the University of Malawi (UNIMA) into three universities; namely the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS); the Kamuzu University of Health Sciences (KUHES); and the University of Malawi (UNIMA). We believe that the decision is not only timely and progressive to the needs of higher education and the younger people, but it is also resoundingly resonating well with the majority view of Malawians. However, we wish to make three strategic observations for future posterity learning from the circumstances, and the manner in which the legally sanctioned delinking of UNIMA was managed by the current Council.
First of all, we wish to reinstate our earlier view that the decision made at the 117th extraordinary meeting of the Council of UNIMA on 20th January 2021 setting aside the delinking process was not only strange but also ultra vires. It ought not to have granted itself powers that it did not have in the very first place. We, therefore, hold the view that the current Council is conflicted to lead the process that it does not subscribe to. To this end, we urge the Chancellor to dissolve the current Council and reconstitute it to ensure that the appointed members are replaced. This will further ensure an objective and professional discharge of the Council’s mandate vis-à-vis the implementation of the delinking process.
Secondly, we are of the considered view that the UNIMA saga exposed undue lapses in the manner the responsible Ministers have exercised, and continue to exercise the discretion to set the commencement date as certain legislations would prescribe. While such a discretion is important for purposes of planning and where the law creates an institution, we believe that such discretion is not unlimited. We therefore recommend that Parliament should provide safeguards to ensure that where discretion is provided, the responsible Minister should act within a reasonable stipulated time to uphold the legislative autonomy and authority of Parliament.
Finally, we implore to government to ensure that there is continuity of policy reforms regardless of the change of government. Policy reforms that are rooted in the popular will of the majority of Malawians should not be arbitrarily set aside in pursuit of selfish or ill motive.
In view of the foregoing, we call upon the Minister of Education to expeditiously gazette the commencement date of the Acts of Parliament within three months, and further to set up an independent Transitional Unit to oversee and conclude the process. CSEC remains committed to working with government and the Transitional Unit to achieve the ambitious agenda of expanding access to quality higher education in Malawi.
