Maseru, May 14 — It never rains but pours at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) as students on Monday evening burned Netherlands hall, security guard house and Students Representative Council (SRC) office.
Earlier on the day, a group of students planned to disrupt the ongoing end of semester examinations but the police were visible everywhere in the campus during the day until in the evening when they (students) burned the said buildings.
Speaking in an interview SRC Minister of Students Affairs Moeketsi Rapuleng confirmed this saying that though the hall is not badly damaged, the SRC office and security guard house are extensively damaged.
He highlighted that they tried to control the situation during the day but did not expect things to take this turn. He said that this behaviour is politically motivated saying therefore it will be difficult for them as SRC to control the students.
He stated that they are still to meet with the NUL Management this morning to determine way forward. He added that so far there are no injuries reported.
Earlier he had said that the students wanted to be given revision week prior to examinations which he said will extend examinations until early June where they would get their monthly stipend.
He said that according to the contract they signed with National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) their academic year is 10 months which will end in June but with the university calendar their year only takes nine (9) months.
However, the Agency could not speak to the Registrar as her phone was not available.
On April 08, NUL students embarked on strike in which they blocked the road by burning tyres and also destroyed some property outside the campus.
Meanwhile post the strike, the Roma community held a march in which they delivered a petition to the NUL Management.
The Agency has discovered that it has become a norm for NUL students to engage in strike especially when examinations are approaching. Second Semester and year end examinations are supposed to start early next month (May).
In October 2023, prior to first semester examinations, students engaged in strike where among the eight grievances by the students, they demanded that academic registration be in effect and done with immediate effect as there is evidence of students not being registered to this day together with all first year students not being registered. Also that all supplementary results be sent to NMDS with immediate effect so that students are able to contract to the secretariat in both main campus and IEMS campus.
