Lupane State University hit by students protest

LUPANE State University (LSU) students on Thursday staged a demonstration against poor service delivery after they were forced to go back home a week into the campus instead of the stipulated three months.

Authorities reportedly told the students drawn from various faculties to only report back at the campus for their examinations without attending physical lectures.

It is not clear why the university decided to send the students
away.

"We are tired of the university making decisions that concern us without our views. The services they are providing to us are bad. We eat bad food, there is no WiFi on campus and we have not completed our course outline of more than three modules, yet we are told to write examinations without attending any lectures week," one student said.

"We have taken this into our own hands and demonstrated to show them that we are not writing exams without learning. We are not going anywhere. We have the right to access education."

University spokesperson Zwelithini Dlamini confirmed the standoff.

"It is true that the students were protesting, but I don't qualify that incident as a protest because there was no destruction of any property. The students communicated to us that they were not happy with the services we were providing to them,"  he said.

"Due to load-shedding, we once ended up giving them food which was not in a good state, particularly beef. It was because of our storage that the meat ended up going bad. But we have tried to install generators as a way of improving our storage. I assure them that nothing like that will happen again".

Dlamini said the institution was working on solving the concerns raised by students.

"We have WiFi challenges, but it is being taken care of. As of the examination timetable, we have spoken to lectures to extend the time of students in school so that they cover the modules left out," he said.

LSU students spokesperson Pamela Mafuku urged fellow students to defy the directive and stay on campus.

"Please note that the part 4.2s that are supposed to leave campus during the weekend can relax comfortably on campus until the issue is resolved," she said.

This is not the first time that students protested against the institution.

Last month, students refused to accept Kudakwashe Mnangagwa after the institution imposed him as the Student Representative Council president.