Crisis At UB

CHANDAPIWA BAPUTAKI
Staff Writer | Monday August 3, 2009 00:00

 

According to the SRC secretary general, Molekane Mojaki, the 57 students are those who will be starting their second, third and fourth years after staying on campus since they started their tertiary education. He revealed that the students had been scared to sleep in the conference hall in case they were ejected by security personnel; 'so they used to hide in the toilets and bathrooms for the night. They only started sleeping here with no mattresses or blankets in the past three days,' he said as he showed Monitor a group of students who were sitting on chairs in the air-conditioned hall.

'We don't know how we are supposed to start classes if we have no place to sleep. We don't even know where we are going to sleep on Monday when the workers report for work. They are probably going to lock the hall and we don't know where we shall go after that,' one student who stated that she was an orphan said. She said she has been surviving on aid from her unemployed aunt in Selebi-Phikwe.

The students, in separate interviews, said they came to UB knowing that they would be given accommodation; so they brought with them only personal belongings. 'We have not been given regret letters on accommodation so we were surprised to learn that first year students have been given accommodation even though they have not been awarded scholarships by the Ministry of Education,' another student said. He explained that they know of one student who was rejected by the ministry but had been given a room at the university after registration.

He said that the way accommodation is awarded amounts to corruption because some UB warders' children have been given accommodation despite the fact that their parents have houses on campus. 'These are just like other children whose parents are working in Gaborone. Do you really think they are going to stay here? They are just going to make their beds and go home to their parents while poor students like us, whose parents are in far away places, suffer without accommodation,' he said.

Another student revealed that there are some students who subvert the system, by bringing their parents to speak for them. 'Some parents just ring the welfare officers and you will suddenly see a student being called from the queue. These ones never fail to get accommodation. We really do not think our parents can afford to make such trips just to come and talk on our behalf in order to be given rooms, while we can do that for ourselves,' said another male student from Mandunyane near Francistown. 'It will cost my parents more than P400 to get here,' said a male student from Mohembo, 70km from the Botswana-Namibian border.

The students said that there are six blocks, which are empty. 'We have been their loyal customers and they should have given us accommodation instead of treating us like nobodies. We know we are from poor families but we have to be treated well,' said another student who said when they tried to talk to the Deputy Director of Student Affairs, she told them to go back to their homes if they felt so aggrieved.

'We really want to thank the former SRC president Kagiso Thutwe for helping us with food whenever he can. We know he does not have money. We wonder where our Member of Parliament is during this time; he will just come here in September to give us a speech of why we should vote for him in the October general elections. This is the time he should be visible to help us,' said a female student.

The Ministry of Education and Skills Development has in past interviews said that there is enough accommodation at the university and will not consider any student for off campus allowance until the accommodation has been filled up. The ministry reduced the students' off campus allowance by P500 to P1, 400 with effect from August 2009, while the students on campus will continue to get P1, 200 a month with their accommodation being paid off to the university.

*All students requested anonymity for fear of victimisation.