121 UB students caught looting on CCTV

Close to two weeks after the re-opening of the University of Botswana, a cloud still hangs over what will happen to the students who were caught on camera at the height of the recent protests that forced the school to shut down.

The UB management is said to have identified 121 who via Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) cameras who were involved in illegal activities that include looting and damage to property. This was when the students engaged in a string of violent protests over delays of payment of their monthly allowances last month.

SRC Minister of Student Affairs Mpho Molokwane told The Midweek Sun in a recent interview that while they were happy to be back at school with their allowances duly credited to their accounts, they are disappointed after the school management notified them that the 121 identified students will be interrogated by the police.

It was not clear at the time of the interview when the school management and the police would start the interrogations.“We still blame the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF), because if they had done their work without being reminded, nothing of this sort would have happened.

However, as the student body, we will still unite and see how everything goes with these individuals because they are still our comrades,” he said. The SRC official expressed content for the outstanding allowances that were paid with no one being left behind. All the university refectories were also back in business on the Monday of resumption, including the Shoppers supermarket which was broken into and looted.

Staff members were however reported to be still unhappy with the blackout on information from the school management. By Monday, no official communication had been sent to lecturers, with many having expected a guiding statement on how to resume the semester.

On the aftermath of the strike, staff members complained of having been left in the lurch by the university council that took its precious time to inform them on when the institution would reopen. Most lecturers are reportedly in the dark about the 121 students likely to be reprimanded for looting and damage to property.