By Neo Kolane
The students at the National University of Lesotho (NUL) are in deep grief following the untimely death of a female third year sociology student in a suspected suicide.
The student, Seithati Rathejane, was found dead at her Hata-Butle residence by Students Representative Council (SRC) president Tumo Tsanyane.
Members of the NUL SRC suspect that Rathejane committed suicide in what they believe was triggered by a tormenting financial strain.
Tsanyane this week told theReporter that they have obtained some clue that some screenshots suspected to have been send by the deceased to her school mate before the incident.
Tsanyane minced no words as he attributed the problem to a disturbing delay by the National Manpower Development Secretariat (NMDS) to award students their monthly allowances.
“There is a perception that the government delays to out student’s loan bursary. It is believed that the admission system at NUL is worrisome.
“Delay in academic registration leads to a delay in processing the loan bursaries of students admitted at the university. The NMDS only gives loan bursaries to students who have been academically registered.
“We are talking about a recent incident in which a student committed suicide as she could not get her money. It must have caused depression leading to her taking own life,” Tsanyane lamented.
Tsanyane said initially the shortcoming of delaying to deposit the allowances into students’ accounts was blamed on the NMDS but it has now also turned to the NUL.
He advised students’ parents “to be prepared for anything because studying at a higher education is risky as there is no guarantee that one will be sponsored or not.”
“Students need to be highly vigilant about the possible risks that they may face head-on,” Tsanyane said.
Tsanyane was also quick to alert the students that the tertiary’s admission letter out-rightly stipulated that the school only admits learners and not offer scholarships.
The school does not take responsibility on students’ financial sponsorship, he urged, while predicting a possible strike in the years to come.
He was reminiscent of two other suicidal cases that cloaked the school.
In a statement released by NUL’s Vice-Chancellor last week, ———— warned students, parents, guardians and the public that admission to study at NUL “does not automatically imply that an admitted student will be awarded a bursary. NUL has a much bigger intake capacity than the bursary quota allocated to it by the government of Lesotho through NMDS.”
It suggested that in September 2021, the names of 2 071 admitted undergraduates were submitted to NMDS to compete for 1 620 loan bursaries. Similarly, it revealed, in November 2021, names of 290 admitted postgraduate students were also submitted to NMDS to compete for 200 bursaries.
“This means that of the 2 361 submitted names, some may be allocated bursaries while others may not,” the Vice-Chancellor said in the statement.
SRC president of Lerotholi Polytechnic, Lebohang Sekamo, said issuance of stipends to students was highly disturbing as frequently experienced by learners at higher institutions. That, he suggested, adversely affect proper learning.
Sekamo said there are students who depend solely on loan bursaries for survival. The disadvantaged students, he added, are sometimes forced to obtain financial assistance from other sources to keep their lives going.
Some of the students, he urged, are from poor families that can hardly afford to sustain the students’ livelihood.
According to Sekamo, some lecturers issue soft copy learning materials to students who are forced to print them but can hardly afford to do so.
He was adamant that some strikes erupt at schools in protest against a delay by the NMDS to offer deposit their monthly allowances. As a result, he added, students accuse the management of failing in their duties.
Sekamo said the main reason raids happen is due to the late issue of the loan bursary from NMDS and secondly its challenges faced by students and management, whereby students are not satisfied with the management,
In some instances, Sekamo said learners were instructed to renew their sponsorship contracts online, but the system ran poorly leading to some falling off from the sponsorship radar.
“When that was realised, the whole renewing process was stopped because investigation had to be done. Some NMDS employees do not do their work in time. The NMDS on the other hand, says the university hands over registration list late when it should avail the list of admitted students two months before studies resume,” Sekamo said.
NMDS information officer, Moeketsi Rankhone, told the publication that NMDS is unable to process the admitted students’ allowances in time “because the university does not handover them in time.“
Rankhone reiterated that lists of eligible students should be availed to the secretariat two weeks before school opens for classes.
He regretted that in other occasions, students fail to avail to the NMDS all the required documentation and information while in some instances the students’ accounts become dormant.
