In statement issued on Friday evening, the education minister Janet Museveni said the president will at a yet to be specified date set the terms of reference for the committee that is to look into the crisis at Makerere University.
She said the president will do this by setting up a visitation committee that will target bringing a lasting solution to the rampant strikes, management flaws and finacial crisis at Africa’s third-best university.
“In pursuance of Section 26(3) [of the University and Tertiary Institutions Act, 2001], the Visitor in due course will institute a Visitation Committee to Makerere University. The terms of reference and the duration of the visitation will be determined by the Visitor,” said Ms Museveni, who is also the First Lady.
Under the University and Tertiary Institutions Act, the President is named as the ‘Visitor’ of each public university, and is granted powers to perform an overall supervisory role over the affairs of these institutions.
In the meantime, Ms Museveni appealed to students, parents, benefactors and the Makerere University community to remain calm while the government seeks a lasting solution to the institution’s problems.
But just as the minister was meeting her officials at State House, Mr Museveni was fuming at a function in southwestern Uganda. Museveni told his audience as he officiated the coronation of Prof Mondo Kangoyera as Kabale University Chancellor that his government will not be held at ransom.
“We shall not tolerate public servants that coerce government by staging demonstrations and strikes as they demand for payments instead of dialogue. Education systems in Uganda must know that the people of Uganda want the type of education that gives jobs to their children,” Mr Museveni said.
Teaching staff at Makerere went on strike after getting fed up of management’s unfulfilled promises to pay them more than Shs28 billion incentive allowances that have gone unpaid over the last eight months.
