Someone must shoulder the blame for UB strike

Mmegi Editor | Friday February 10, 2017 10:23

The UB strike every beginning of the year is well documented. The issue is always the same and government and the UB leadership do not learn from past experiences. The Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) is always at the centre of this problem. And every time the students take blame.

We do not condone nor encourage what took place on Wednesday afternoon when the students went on a rampage vandalising private and government property. This was after their plea to be paid their monthly allowance fell on deaf ears. They wasted valuable academic hours appealing to their elders at the DTEF and the Thabo Fako led institution to come to their rescue.

Nobody helped them and they resorted to violence so that they could get attention. And the strategy worked. Like we said we do not condone violence and in this case UB management and DTEF have also violated the affected students by not paying them their allowance well on time. Violence begets violence and both the students and management violated each other in this particular case.

We could not be pointing fingers if all the parties respected their obligations to stick to what is entailed in the contracts. The students are made to suffer because some people at DTEF and UB failed to perform their duties. Because of this financial hardship some students were thrown out of their rented houses in Gaborone and the peripheries.

Some were forced to attend classes with empty stomachs.

How they are supposed to concentrate and write exams in this state boggles the mind. Meanwhile the UB management and DTEF staff were paid their monthly salaries while the students were short-charged. 

We should not blame the students because the government is facing serious financial problems. That is not their issue.

Today it might be UB students and tomorrow the issue will resurface at other private universities because of poor planning and thuggery on the part of DTEF. We call upon the DTEF and UB management to resolve the issue of allowance once and for all. We are tired of this issue persisting every year. 

Today’s thought 

“How do they expect us to pay rent and come to school on empty stomach because most of us depend on these allowances?” 

– UB unidentified female student