UB SRC slams student politics� ban

Gothataone Moeng | Wednesday June 25, 2014 06:59

 

At a press conference on campus yesterday, Student President, Jacob Kelebeng said he was asked to leave the UB Council meeting that made the decision. Kelebeng sits on the Council by virtue of his position in the SRC.

Students fingered UB management, the Ministry of Education and Skills Development and government as being behind the decision.

SRC Secretary-General, Motonto Motonto said the decision was likely motivated by the fact that the ruling Botswana Democratic Party has been losing popularity in the University in recent years. “The former Education Minister, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi said before that she had problems with SRCs being politically motivated,” he said.

“The former minister is a political appointee as are the members of the UB Council.”

He claimed the UB Council, chaired by prominent lawyer Parks Tafa, had taken the decision without empirical evidence that political activity in the university was indeed dividing students.

The Secretary-General revealed that the SRC has commissioned a survey of universities in the region and further abroad to assess whether political activity is allowed in such institutions. “Progressive universities encourage student politics,” he said. 

Meanwhile, SRC President, Kelebeng condemned university management for being wasteful after its recent decision to revert to the old UB logo. 

The old logo symbolises the spirit of “One Man, One Beast” that funded the building of the university.

“We are not opposed to going back to the old logo,” he said. “However, our major concern is that a lot of money was spent changing the logo, and now even more is going to be spent in again changing to the old logo.”