Ntsebeng Motsoeli
MASERU — Striking lecturers at Limkokwing University of Creative Technology (LUCT) are in fighting mood.
On Friday they told the Sunday Express that lecturers who were brought in from Botswana last week are effectively here on “holiday” as they will not be allowed to set foot on the Maseru campus.
The threat comes as management shut down the university on Friday saying it needed time to fix the problems haunting the institution.
The university will be reopened on November 21.
The spokesman for the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology Academic Staff Union (Luctasu), Malefetsane Nchaka, said they were not going to allow the lecturers to “take over our jobs”.
“They are not going to teach our students. We won’t let them. We are not going to do anything harmful or hostile. But they are not just going to walk in there,” Nchaka said.
“The management was dreaming to call those teachers to take over our jobs. They should take this trip here as a holiday.”
Limkokwing university corporate secretary, Tefo Macheli, confirmed that the management had shut down the school on Friday.
“The management decided to close down the school to prepare for lectures to begin,” Macheli said.
But Seshophe Ramakoro the Students’ Representative Committee (SRC) secretary general told the Sunday Express that management had informed them in a meeting that they had shut down the school because students were planning to embark on a strike.
“In a meeting on Friday, the management told us that they had sent back the Botswana lecturers who were here. They said this was for safety purposes,” Ramakoro said.
Ramakoro said they had also been told that only final year students will be allowed to come back on November 21.
“Students who are graduating in December and those who are going on internships in February are expected to start classes on the 21st (of November),” Ramakoro said.
He also added that the final year students will be expected to sign forms pledging to go back to lectures and be taught by any lecturers who will be available.
“Students were asked to fill the class continuance interest pledge forms that they will attend classes even if they are taught by substitute teachers,” Ramakoro said.
Macheli could not be reached for comment yesterday on the students’ claims.
Management at Limkokwing began bringing in lecturers from its sister campus in Botswana after local teachers downed tools in protest over working conditions last week.
But the decision to bring the lecturers has torched chaotic scenes at the Maseru campus as lecturers vowed to stop the temporary lecturers from conducting classes.
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