MASERU – VIOLENT riots that rocked the National University of Lesotho (NUL) on Tuesday have left at least one student critically injured with several others nursing serious injuries.
The student was said to be in a critical condition at St Joseph’s Hospital in Roma. Several other students were treated as outpatients.
thepost heard that the male student was beaten up by his colleagues after he refused to join the strike.
Other students were also beaten up during the riots.
The Students’ Representative Council (SRC) president, Tumo Tsanyane, was also said to have been assaulted. Tsanyane declined to comment when asked about the matter yesterday.
However, Tsanyane was seen being bandaged by other students after he was punched by several striking students who were angry that the SRC had not taken sides with them during the protests.
Other students who were injured were allegedly beaten up by the Roma police who responded to the violent strike.
Several buildings in and out of the university campus were damaged while some shops were looted.
The students were angry after the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) delayed to release their allowances.
They said their patience had run out after the NMDS failed to deliver.
The students were destroying university property and the police were then called to put the situation under control.
The NUL Vice Chancellor, Professor Isaac Olusola Fajana, then ordered the immediate closure of the university.
He said the management has “embarked on investigations on the matter because the reasons for this rampage are not yet known to the management”.
He said all his attempts to try to talk to the students had failed adding that they will take remedial action after the investigations.
To prevent further damage on the school campus, the Vice Chancellor ordered an immediate evacuation of students from the campus within 30 minutes.
Tsanyane told thepost that the students started singing protest songs in the morning and later started throwing stones at the security office.
He said the students did not end there as they went on a search for students who were not on strike and beat them to a pulp.
“One is in a critical condition now,” Tsanyane said.
“The students went out of campus to the nearest shops and looted everything they could find. They looted a Chinese supermarket, U-Save and from the street vendors along the campus,” he said.
Tsanyane believes the strike was infiltrated by outsiders who took advantage of the unrest at the school and its surroundings.
He said they went to the NMDS on Monday where they were told that the list of students to be sponsored had not been tendered by the school therefore they could not pay students they do not know.
He said the university told them that the registry officer was on leave and there was no one to process the list.
“This issue of registration delays has caused us a lot of problems and might affect the quality of education,” he said.
Development Planning Minister Selibe Mochoboroane, who is responsible for the NMDS, could not be reached for comment last night.
But he released a series of tweets on Wednesday morning that the institutions of higher learning need to expedite the registration processes and send the names to the NDMS on time.
He said the NDMS cannot just pay ghost students and the names should be sent through on time.
Nkheli Liphoto
