LSU to ease accommodation shortage

and allocation of space has been done to prioritise the academic staff. I think almost 99 percent of staff hostels have been allocated to them,” Mr Dlamini.

“The second hostel for male students is also almost complete. I think there are minor issues that are being attended to hoping that by November to December, it should also be ready to accommodate students.”

Mr Dlamini said the lecturers would continue sharing accommodation as they have been doing to cater for more staffers.

“I think the (staff ) hostel can accommodate in excess of 24 members and it could be more because they will be sharing the accommodation. The majority of them haven’t taken their families with them. That was the rationale (behind accommodation sharing) since they were already sharing. It wouldn’t be a problem for each of them to take a bedroom and then share a kitchen,” he said.

Mr Dlamini said the university has partnered with the private sector for its construction projects as depending on Government financial aid was stalling development. “We realised that Government alone is proving to be a bit slow in terms of funding of capital projects for the universities. And the window of engaging private players to partner with the universities is proving to be worthwhile on infrastructural development,” he said.

“We have engaged local partners who have come on board and shown interest in developing particularly accommodation for students. That one seems to be the most attractive one and by order of priority the second one seems to be the construction of accommodation for staff.”

Mr Dlamini said the university does not want to overprice its deals so that accommodation will remain affordable for its community.

He said some of the projects that they would be completing before the end of the year include a dining hall, kitchen and the campus clinic.

Mr Dlamini said the university is still in negotiations with some banks for the construction of some faculties.

“We have a few banks that have expressed interest and we have done some preliminary work but unfortunately I cannot disclose in case I jeopardise the negotiations that are still ongoing. The other faculties that are yet to be constructed, they (banks) have expressed interest with the hope that as discussions progress, it will be much clearer which of those projects they will take on board first,” he said. — @nqotshilEnds