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IFM student leaders up in arms
2007-06-02 10:18:44
By Gadiosa Lamtey
Expelled student leaders at the Institute of Finance Management in Dar es Salaam have threatened to seek legal redress unless they are reinstated immediately and unconditionally.
IFM students` organisation President Boniface Batazari, Social Affairs minister Ditrik Mwita and several other leaders were expelled on Tuesday on allegations of fomenting unrest and using abusive language against the institute\'s officials.
The administration`s decision, which came only a day after a new students` government was elected, saw the organisation`s vice president, Madaa Peter, and several members of the leadership committee escape with a severe warning.
The chairman of the students` electoral committee, Mwalimu Salum, was suspended for a month. Other members of the election committee who received warning letters include Chamali Ali (Advanced Diploma in Information Technology - second year), Milambo Steven (ADA IT - first year), and Kapande Lunda and Mashimba Shukurani (Advanced Diploma in Accountancy - second year).
All those sent away have described the decision as unfair, and threatened to take legal action against the administration.
``If immediate steps are not taken to reinstate us unconditionally, we will surely go to court,`` said Mwita in an interview with The Guardian on Thursday.
Batazari concurred, saying: ``We are expecting to go to court very soon if the issue is not resolved.``
The students accused the administration of ``deliberate ill moves aimed at ousting the newly elected students\' leaders to implant a pro-administration leadership that would suit its interests``.
``The administration`s unholy intervention started long ago. They rejected the student leaders elected during the primary elections conducted on April 21, this year, and disrupted second and final elections,`` explained Mwita.
Sources close to the administration said attempts to block the second students` elections on May 28 failed after students staged a boycott, pressuring the administration to allow them to proceed with the polls as scheduled.
Following the pressure, Mwita said, IFM Principal Joshua Doriye attended the students Baraza and asked the students to conduct elections on May 29 to avoid interfering with the institute`s timetable.
``The students granted Prof Doriye`s request but immediately after the election of the new students` government, the administration wrote expulsion, suspension and warning letters to the students` leaders and election committee members,`` he said.
Acting Principal John Lyanga defended the administration`s decision, saying it was taken in accordance with the institute`s rules and regulations.
He dismissed as groundless students` allegations that the administration had planned to disqualify the new student government in an attempt to help install a leadership preferable to it.
``The administration is less concerned with students` leadership elections. Speculations that we have been pushing for a student leadership preferable to us are baseless,`` said Lyanga in a separate interview.
``This is not the expelled students` first offence; they have committed similar offences in the past.
We gave them warning letters but they kept on repeating the mistakes. They deserve the severe punishment meted out to them,`` he added.
But the students said the disciplinary committee that recommended their expulsion was chaired by IFM Registrar Jeremia Nguma, one of the persons who had accused the students of insulting him, the Principal and the students\' warden, whose name was given as A. Mpanda.
``There was bias and unfairness in the committee\'s decision. What do you expect in a situation where someone in authority who accuses the students of misbehaviour heading a committee handling the same students` case?`` queried Mwita.
Acting principal Lyanga said he was not aware of the existence of the said bias in the disciplinary committee and advised the students to forward their complaints to authorities overseeing the affairs of higher education institutes in the country instead of going to court.
``But they can still go to court if they think that is the best way to solve the problem,`` he observed.
IFM students on Wednesday marched to State House, pressing for the reinstatement of their colleagues who have been sent away.
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