News / National
Food crisis hits UZ
04 Mar 2019 at 13:43hrs | Views
University of Zimbabwe residential students are crying foul over the food they are consuming.
The students, who refused to be identified, were in unison that food quality had deteriorated.
"Things have totally changed, the responsible authorities should just have increased the residential fees and made sure things are right than to pretend as if everything is okay.
"We are now eating sadza three times a week in the afternoon yet we used to eat rice only.
"As students will feel like they are now violating our rights, vegetarian or non-spice eater, they are no longer considering all those health issues.
"Besides the bad quality of the food, there are long queues at the dining hall entrances which is really exhausting and frustrating.
"Queuing for food makes us late for lectures."
He added:
"Our breakfast will be lacking sausages yet we would have paid."
Another student also said:
"It was better if they had increased residential fees than to make us suffer.
"Everything has just gone wrong, the facilities, the services, everything and these are not things that we can really protest against but the responsible authorities should just negotiate and come up with a solution."
Dean of Students Dr Munyaradzi Madambi said there were no food shortages at the institution adding that they served quality food.
"This is news to me; our system is very efficient and if there was a food problem I would have known.
"Our wardens eat with our students and they would know if there are shortages or poor food and every hostel has a warden.
"Besides, every hostel has a hostel committee and there are student representatives in those committees responsible for the communication if there is something wrong with the food.
Dr Madambi said they have tried to maintain the standards without increasing fees despite the changes in the economic environment.
"There are no increments in fees but we have enough supplies.
"We have a 2000 hectare farm where we grow maize, vegetables and also rear cattle and chickens.
"That is where our supplies come from that is why things have remained normal. However, should there be a change in the environment and a need to top up fees, we might top up with all stakeholders in agreement," he said.
The students, who refused to be identified, were in unison that food quality had deteriorated.
"Things have totally changed, the responsible authorities should just have increased the residential fees and made sure things are right than to pretend as if everything is okay.
"We are now eating sadza three times a week in the afternoon yet we used to eat rice only.
"As students will feel like they are now violating our rights, vegetarian or non-spice eater, they are no longer considering all those health issues.
"Besides the bad quality of the food, there are long queues at the dining hall entrances which is really exhausting and frustrating.
"Queuing for food makes us late for lectures."
He added:
"Our breakfast will be lacking sausages yet we would have paid."
Another student also said:
"Everything has just gone wrong, the facilities, the services, everything and these are not things that we can really protest against but the responsible authorities should just negotiate and come up with a solution."
Dean of Students Dr Munyaradzi Madambi said there were no food shortages at the institution adding that they served quality food.
"This is news to me; our system is very efficient and if there was a food problem I would have known.
"Our wardens eat with our students and they would know if there are shortages or poor food and every hostel has a warden.
"Besides, every hostel has a hostel committee and there are student representatives in those committees responsible for the communication if there is something wrong with the food.
Dr Madambi said they have tried to maintain the standards without increasing fees despite the changes in the economic environment.
"There are no increments in fees but we have enough supplies.
"We have a 2000 hectare farm where we grow maize, vegetables and also rear cattle and chickens.
"That is where our supplies come from that is why things have remained normal. However, should there be a change in the environment and a need to top up fees, we might top up with all stakeholders in agreement," he said.
Source - hmetro
