Accommodation chaos at BIUST

Bonte Seepi | Thursday February 12, 2015 12:56

 

Mmegi leant that undergraduate students were moving door-to-door in search of accommodation in the village. Since some students had nowhere to sleep, they were desperately forced to sleep in the university’s common rooms, something seen as an untidy situation that did not befit the stature of an institution like BIUST.

It was apparent that poor planning on the side of the university precipitated the accommodation crisis at BIUST.

Acting Director, Communications and Public Relations at the BIUST Keoagile Rafifing recently admitted that the university was besieged by an acute shortage of accommodation for the students.  He said BIUST has a total of 1,550 students of which 800 are new arrivals and the rest the old batch. Among the 800 students only 73 had opted to stay off-campus.

“We are currently building houses for our students and we are expecting them to be ready by end of this month. So in the meantime we have provided our students with temporary accommodation at the Institute of Health Sciences, and the old Sekgoma Hospital in Serowe.

“We have also rented Botswana Housing Corporation (BHC) houses both in Serowe-Palapye area.

He further clarified that the university has provided some beds and lockers to all the students and they provide them with food and transport as well. He denied reports that desperate students were seen in the village looking for houses.

Rafifing urged parents to calm down, adding that the situation was under the university’s control. “Some parents have been calling us worried about the reports they had heard, but they must calm down because we are working on the matter and we will make sure that the students eat and sleep well.

“We have even hired security companies to guard all the places where our students stay. We are even in the process of sending some BIUST workers (wardens) to those places to take care of the students,” explained Rafifing, adding that  the institution was new, so challenges should be expected.

The president of BIUST Student Representative Council (SRC), Enock Government confirmed that some students were desperately in need of accommodation and some even slept in common rooms.

“It is true, last week when students arrived, the situation was so bad that some even slept in the common rooms. But that was because the BHC failed to hand the school some houses at the agreed time saying they were still incomplete. “I think the university also made a mistake by promising to accommodate all the students though they knew that their hostels were not yet ready,” said Government.

He stated that the company that is currently constructing the houses promised to complete the hostels before the school re-opens but they failed to do so, which also led to the mess.

He said that he had a meeting with the construction company onsite and they promised that 400 houses would be completed by end of this week.

He confirmed the temporary accommodation arrangements outside campus.

“The school was forced to seek for alternative accommodation from as far as Serowe because Palapye could not provide the desired alternative,” explained Government.