Blantyre, Malawi - Lecturers at Chancellor College, the main constituent college of the University of Malawi, were meeting Tuesday to decide whether the directive and assurances given by President Bingu wa Mutharika met their conditions in the eight-month academic freedom stand-off. In a surprise statement by the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC), Mutharika said he was guaranteeing academic freedom within the conditions of service of the lecturers and ordered that four lecturers that were sacked at the peak of the wrangle be reinstated without any conditions. 'The four lecturers should be re-instated without any conditions,' said Mutharika in a statement, potentially ending the 250-day-old stand-off. President Mutharika said he was 'gravely concerned' with the indefinite closure of the university, saying he strongly felt that the right to education of the students was greatly affected. Mutharika, through the University Council, fired Chancellor College Academic Staff Union, Dr. Jesse Kabwila-Kapasula, the union's Secretary General Franz Amin, law professor Garton Kamchedzera and associate political science professor Blessings Chinsinga.

The academic freedom struggle was sparked off when Inspector General of Police Peter Mukhito summoned Dr. Chinsinga on 12 February to quiz him over a classroom example he gave his public policy class.

The youthful lecturer had reportedly likened the insurrections that toppled governments in Tunisia and Egypt to Malawi's current fuel and foreign exchange reserves shortages.

On 16 February, fellow lecturers downed tools, saying they could not teach freely in classes infested by spooks planted by police.

They demanded an apology from Mukhito and assurances of academic freedom.

But President Mutharika, who is also Chancellor of the University of Malawi as well as Commander-in-Chief of the Malawi Police Service, said the police chief could not apologise to 'teachers teaching insurrection'.

Despite advice from the Presidential Contact Group on Dialogue to re-instate the four, Mutharika refused.

Recently, about a fortnight ago, Mutharika re-iterated his stand against the four, whom he declared 'renegade lecturers'. But the student body publicly heckled, booed and jeered him.

In the Tuesday statement, Mutharika did a mea culpa.

'The President is guaranteeing academic freedom within the conditions of service of the University of Malawi,' said the statement. 'That Government has never and will never place spies in classrooms or within the campuses of University of Malawi.'

Dr. Kamchedzera, one of the fired four lecturers, said Tuesday the lecturers had only heard of the statement and a general meeting was being called Tuesday to decide the future of the academic freedom struggle.

'Until we see anything in writing and discuss it as a college, we reserve our comment,' he said. 'The dismissal of the four was a further violation of academic freedom as these were leaders in the fight for academic freedom. Security of Union leaders is an issue of academic freedom, so we look forward to such agreement.'

This latest mea culpa from Mutharika comes fast on the heels of another over the expulsion of the British High Commissioner Fergus Cochraine-Dyet and the new Zambian President Michael Sata who were separately declared persona non grata.

The British envoy was expelled in April 2011 after a diplomatic cable to his boss, Foreign Secretary William Hague, in which he declared Mutharika as 'increasing becoming autocratic and intolerant of criticism', leaked to the media.

Sata, on the other hand, was deported from Malawi in 2007 for unexplained reasons.

Pana 26/10/2011