‘Mantoetse Maama
The National University of Lesotho (NUL) will re-open tomorrow following its indefinite closure on Tuesday due to security concerns.
After the Lesotho Mounted Police Service had suspended its operations last Saturday following violent clashes with the army, the NUL governing body, the Senate, decided to close down the institution due to the resultant security vacuum.
Three laptops had already been stolen by the time the university authorities decided to close the institution.
However, following the resumption of police operations on Wednesday afternoon, the university on Friday announced the resumption of classes on Monday.
A statement issued on Friday by the university reads in part: “The (NUL) Senate has re-convened and assessed the security situation in Lesotho and in particular at the Roma and Maseru campuses, and has decided that lectures should resume on Monday, 8 September 2014.
“This decision was made in view of the fact that the situation is improving and also to ensure students do not lose much learning time. Senate further decided that all other services and activities that affect teaching and learning, including the use of the library, be brought to normal as of Monday.
“All students are, therefore, requested to be on campus by Monday, in preparation for the resumption of lectures and other academic activities as planned. Teaching recovery time will be looked into later to make up for the lost time.”
The NUL Director of Communications and Marketing, Phumla Moleko, further explained why the varsity had to be temporarily closed: “We realised that students were no longer safe as their laptops had been stolen from their residences on campus; we realised that their safety was now compromised as there were no services at the police station. We have not yet reported the cases to the police, but we suspect some villager in Roma.”
Ms Moleko further said now that the security situation was back to normal, lessons would resume on Monday.
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