Medicine students confront Minister who threatens to play hardball

The longstanding standoff between DDT College of Medicine students and government authorities intensified on Monday when students stormed the headquarters of the Ministry of Higher Education, demanding to meet with Minister Prince Maele.The students accused the minister of misleading them during their previous engagement regarding the ongoing impasse with the institution.Tensions ran high as the students made their way to the executive floor, where the minister’s office is located, but were blocked from proceeding further. Security was later reinforced when police officers, including members of the SSG in full riot gear, were deployed to the ministry.According to a former member of the Student Representative Council (SRC), this week’s protest followed months of frustration over what students describe as “slow and inadequate” government response to their plight.The students had previously camped overnight at the ministry in September, demanding action. During that meeting, the minister reportedly acknowledged their concerns and pledged to intervene, with President Duma Boko also allegedly affirming his support.As part of efforts to prevent bias in the handling of their case, the students terminated their contract with DDT, hoping their situation would then be treated like any other normal academic issue.They claim the minister advised them to consider transferring to institutions within the SADC region since most of their courses were not offered locally.However, when the termination response came from the Department of Tertiary Education Financing (DTEF), students were told they could only transfer to local institutions and that these institutions had to recognise their prior academic results.This created a new hurdle, as most local institutions were still offering outdated legacy courses and ultimately rejected all transfer requests.The students say this breach of the original agreement prompted their return to the ministry. They insist that they want the government to honour the commitments made by the minister during their September meeting.In response to Monday’s standoff, Minister Maele reassured the students that their concerns had not been ignored. He urged them to remain patient and expressed his commitment to finding a lasting solution.A resolution meeting has been scheduled for this Wednesday evening, where students say they expect concrete action from the ministry to bring the matter to a fair conclusion.Maele also asked the students to stop coming to the ministry headquarters demanding to see him urgently, as he has a lot of things on his plate, and they should follow due process.He warned that if the students were not accommodating to doing things procedurally, like allowing the ministry to keep in touch with their leaders, they too would draw back and play hardball with them.

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Medicine students confront Minister who threatens to play hardball