Lupane State University (LSU) is struggling to accommodate students at its main campus in Lupane, with first years and late registrants reportedly forced to sleep on the floor in overpopulated hostel rooms.
The university started relocating some students in 2017 from Bulawayo campus to its main campus in Lupane.
In an interview with CITE, LSU’s Student Representative Council Silas Patrick said because of the rapid relocation, students are overcrowded but the university’s management keeps on piling students.
He said one room has at least eight students, with four on bunk beds and the rest sleeping on the floor.
“The management does not care that the residence is full. They keep on bringing more students. We are living in hostile conditions,” he said.
Patrick said the design of the rooms caters for at least to people and the ablution facilities at the hostels cannot cater for the current population.
“The toilets, which are supposed to be used by twelve people are now used by 96 people, which is unrealistic. The toilets are always blocking because of water shortages, they are compromising our health,” he said.
Patrick said those sleeping on the floor also pay $280 residential fees, meaning the university makes more money from a single room.
“The room that is supposed to give them $560 is now giving the $2 240 which is not even worth the small rooms,” he said.
He said the Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Minister Richard Moyo visited the university on Tuesday but was only showed the side where the conditions are better.
“The minister was shown the side where toilets were working and a few living in fours. He did not see the real issues affecting the students,” he said.
Contacted for comment, LSU the university director of marketing and communication, Zwelithini Dlamini dismissed the allegations saying no student is sleeping on the floor.
“It is not true that some of our students are sleeping on the floor, it is news to me,” he said.
“What is on the ground is that students share rooms in fours because we are still finishing up one hostel.”
He admitted the university was pressed on accommodation which was necessitated by the delay in the completion of the male hostels which are now only requiring electricity.
