Twelve people were picked up by the police at the Maninday Toliara campus. There are students and non-students. According to General Nixor Tambala, CIRGN of Toliara, there are profiteers among the demonstrators “We must react to the risks of public unrest and disorder caused by the student strike. We thus arrested twelve people yesterday including students, high school students, pedicab pullers and a guard. There are individuals who are waiting to take advantage of the disorder to do something else and we cannot accept such actions,” he explained.
From the morning, many shops and businesses in Scama and Tanambao closed for fear of breakage. The demonstrators planned to take to the streets and go to the side of the University of Toliara office at the Jardin de la Mer shells. And the traders on this axis preferred not to receive customers. The students are asking for their scholarships and started protesting since Monday when they stopped the Asief matches from taking place in Maninday. “We are demanding our scholarships that have not been paid for three months, the validation of the masters and the rehabilitation of blocks 42 and 43, in a sorry state since the last rainy season” shout the students.
Latecomers
Reactions Andriamanantena Razafiharison, President of the University of Toliara replies that the request for authorization of master’s degrees has been granted since December 2021 and that requests can be made to obtain them. “Students who are not late have already obtained their claim scholarship. It is especially the latecomers who do not want to follow the recommendations and do not want to wait. The 7th, 8th and 9th months of scholarship are being prepared as in all the other universities in the country”, he underlined.
The prefecture of Toliara called for calm since Toliara is the host city of several events like the Asief, religious meetings and many vacationers. The BNGRC proposed the beginning of the rehabilitation of block 42-43 by donating sheets. The blocks in question, however, do not only require sheets.
They definitely need a serious overhaul because they don’t have running water, blocked drain tiles, unsecured doors. Many other homes on campus are in disrepair. Reactions have flared up since Monday and propose holding national meetings to find a lasting solution to the problem of student grants so as not to take students hostage.
