Reports Leo Odera Omolo
TALKS between Makerere University and the Finance ministry yesterday failed to resolve the strike at Uganda’s largest and oldest public university.
After more than seven hours of nail-biting negotiations at the ministry, there seemed to be no end in sight to the sit-down strike which started yesterday morning.
Tanga Odoi, the head of the Makerere University Academic Staff Association, said the strike would continue until the university council resolved the matter.
The situation at the campus, however, was calm.
Students roamed about while lecture rooms and offices remained closed. The mood was dull as first year and other students who expected to start lectures appeared disappointed and stranded.
Both academic and non-academic workers are protesting the council’s and the Government’s failure to recover their pension funds from the National Insurance Corporation (NIC). The contract ended five years ago, but NIC has not paid the workers.
The money is said to have accumulated between July 1996 and 2005, when the company operated the Makerere staff pension scheme.
Makerere says the company owes sh17.7b about 2,000 workers, but the corporation said it will pay only sh13b.
“What we need is the release of our money. But we see no headway and we cannot open the university to the students,” Odoi said.
He said during the talks, NIC had instead promised to release financial statements of university staff, which he said should have been given to them on a monthly basis.
Both finance minister Syda Bbumba and the university council chairperson, Matthew Rukikaire, could not be reached for comment.
Today, the council holds an emergency meeting over the matter. The minister is also expected to meet President Yoweri Museveni over the issue. Odoi and other lecturers personally ordered the closure of most faculties.
Most new students, who reported for the first semester two weeks ago, looked stranded, while the Police patrolled the campus.
In the halls of residence, most of the workers did not report for duty. Those who did, worked half-day. In Nkurumah Hall, more than half of the 450 resident students had reported but it was not clear if they would get services.
A student and resident of Mitchell Hall said on condition of anonymity that if the administration did not resolve the matter in two days, the students would join the strike.
MUASA officials, Makerere administration and support staff chiefs met in the morning to plan the strike. Three committees are in charge of the strike.
“We appeal to students to remain calm in the next two days as the Government and the university management tackle the impasse,” Louis Kakinda, the spokesperson of the strike committees, said.
The university administration officials could not be reached for comment.
Wilson Were, the president general of the National Organisation of Trade Unions, said they had asked the Government to pay the funds, or compel NIC to do so
Ends