“Our argument that the UB is too politicised and something must be done about it has been vindicated by the problems surrounding the payment of student allowances,” Ntuane said yesterday. He told Mmegi that the information they have shows that the Ministry of Education released money on schedule and the delay in effecting payment originated within the UB administration. “Our view is that such a delay is unjustified because the administration knew in advance when the semester would start and should have ensured that everything is in place to avoid disruption,” he said. He added that with so many people in the UB administration involved in partisan politics, the BDP is suspicious that the delay in effecting payment was deliberate to incite the students. Alternatively, the people charged with the responsibility just did not have the time because they are busy campaigning for the general elections.
“You can’t have lecturers running around in house-to-house campaigns and at political rallies when they should be engaged in teaching, research and publishing. You can’t have administration staff busy running their party central committees from the university and campaigning for general elections when they should be dealing with matters such as student allowances and others”.
Ntuane stressed that some of the lecturers and administration staff have been saying that members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) leave the army to join the BDP. “That is precisely what they should be doing. They must choose between politics and academia. If they want to stay on as lecturers and administrators, they must quit politics. If they want politics, they must quit the university”.
The UB public affairs director, Samuel Moribame told Mmegi yesterday he cannot answer questions on the politicisation of the UB. “They will better be responded to by the UB Vice Chancellor, Bojosi Otlhogile as such are policy issues”. He said that it would be unfair to respond to some of the questions since there will be an investigation on the UB following a recent parliamentary motion by the Gaborone-West MP, Robert Molefhabangwe. “Otherwise, we would pre-empt the investigations. What we understand however is that students are protesting over the allowances. We are likely to respond to some of the issues once they are raised”.
UB students held a demonstration Tuesday to protest the delay in paying allowances to the first year students Monday this week.
