81 members of parliament have voted against a motion to rescind government’s decision to abolish meal allowances at public universities, defeating 58 MPs who were in support.

Kapiri Mposhi UPND member of parliament Stanley Kakubo moved a private member’s motion in Parliament, Wednesday, that the House urges government to rescind its decision to abolish the payment of meal allowances to students at public universities.

In his debate, Kakubo said “the changes that shall follow must leave UNZA and CBU the way they are. And all the things that are working, including meal allowances at UNZA and CBU must be replicated to the other universities by government finding other funds. Not by cutting and chopping meal allowances.”

But Minister of General Education David Mabumba, who is acting Minister of Higher Education, said the motion was incompetent, inappropriate and was informed by a fraudulent intention to incite students against government.

“This motion in the first place is incompetent, inappropriate and is informed by fraudulent intention to incite the students population out there. It’s a motion that is not in good faith because the PF government has been a friend of the student population. We used to have two universities [but] as we speak now, we have a number of university projects that are under construction,” said Mabumba.