The University of Zambia (UNZA) Great East Road campus was yesterday forced to cancel three examinations midway through due to a power cut.

In an interview, UNZA public relations manager Habeenzu Mulunda said the three cancelled papers would have to be re-set and rescheduled.

“Three papers have been cancelled, that is MC, I think this is Mass Communications 22, 25, then LST 3100, LST 4030. These were writing their exams in the library basement. Then at break, the students who were supposed to do the practicals also had to cancel that because they needed to use the machines that are using power. So, these ones here are three plus the practical one all had to be cancelled. So, it means that those papers that had to be cancelled will have to be rescheduled to another day and doing another paper. It has to be a different paper,” Mulunda said.

Mulunda said the institution had established that some road contractors in Roma had tempered with one of the cables which supplies power to the East Park sub Station where UNZA taps energy from.

“The interruption in the power, I was just talking to the resident engineer [and] he said the problem is coming from the East Park sub-station. The East Park sub-station taps power from the sub-station in Roma but now, I hear the contractor there had tempered with one of the lines that supply power to East Park. It’s like these contractors doing the roads have cut the line. So that’s where the problem is. So, the power comes in and off. Right now the power that we are using is not at 100 per cent [because] we are tapping from the sub-station near Mass Media although it’s also not very stable. If it’s put on 100 per cent [then] it keeps on tripping. I am informed that we are operating at 80 per cent,” said Mulunda.