SRC demands action against UB employees
Baboki Kayawe | Wednesday March 22, 2017 18:00
This call was made just after five members of the University of Botswana’s Student Representative Council (SRC) and 19 other students were summoned for disciplinary hearings that were initially scheduled to start yesterday until Friday.
Latest news are that the students, who were slapped with letters early Thursday announcing the disciplinary action, yesterday learned they would appear next Monday. Fifty other members of the student community are on the wanted list.
The five student leaders are SRC vice-president, Dikosha Dikosha, minister of student affairs, Mpho Molokwane, minister of entertainment, Ratang Olatotswe, treasurer, Nollen Bome and secretary general, Edwin Ramere.
Dikosha told Mmegi that many learners have also been served with letters for disciplinary hearings, an exercise he labelled “frivolous and a mockery”.
The charges range from two to 22 per individual. However, the common ones are that of inciting violence contrary to the University’s governing statutes, theft and vandalism.
“The charges are a compilation of lies, they lack facts and evidence to sustain them,” he said.
He expressed disappointment, especially with the UB management because the student leaders were willingness to work towards reconstructing relations between the two parties and the student community in general.
“The SRC says UB management has to equally extend disciplinary action against their employees who contributed to the protests through failure to submit the needed students details timely to enable the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF) to credit living allowances on time,” he said.
He added the Department of Finance and the Student Welfare office have greatly contributed through delaying DTEF processes hence “it won’t be right for UB not to investigate and charge those found to be wrong”.
Dikosha said the students “demand that action be taken against those UB employees who contributed to the strike”. The student leaders have engaged legal advisors to look at how best to remedy the situation.
This week, the Minister of Tertiary Education, Research, Science and Technology, Dr Alfred Madigele urged institutions of higher learning and the students to device conflict resolution processes amidst the unfolding events.
“I am intentionally discoursing on conflict and conflict resolution because of the latest unfortunate events where there was conflict between educational providers and students.
We need to find solutions to the problems bedeviling us,” he said, adding that engaging in national conversations in the spirit of botho could help amicably resolve differences.