By Poloko Mokhele
The National University of Lesotho has distanced itself from the engagement of contractors who are caring out the renovation works on the halls of residence at the university in preparation for the AUSC Region 5 games.
This comes an incident last week Thursday, which saw members of the Roma community barricade the NUL main gate, obstructing the flow of traffic in and out of the campus. However, the university sought assistance from the police to disperse the crowd.
According to a weekend statement seen by theReporter, the university management then convened an urgent meeting with the chief, the chairman of the Manonyane Community Council, Roma contractors and community representatives in the afternoon of the same day. Also invited to the meeting were representatives from the ministry of gender, youth, sports and recreation, the ministry of public works and the Roma police.
During the meeting the Roma community led by the chief, the Manonyane community and Roma contractors separately presented grievances against the university, “that the engagement of contractors who are renovating the halls of residence at NUL had excluded the Roma based contractors and that the employment processes for staff at the university must give priority to the residents of Roma so that they form the majority of staff members.”
The university has however distanced itself stating that “It was clarified that the procurement of contractors had been effected by the relevant government ministries through selective tendering of registered category A and B contractors and that the recruitment processes for staff was guided by policies and standards and not by location of the applicants.”
Despite that, the contractors were still unhappy as they claimed that none of the Roma based contractors had been engaged and so they demanded that government should also engage them. “We are awaiting feedback from government on the matter,” said the university.
