THE ROLE OF SWAZILAND JOURNALISTS

It seems my departure from the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) has set people thinking about what will happen to journalism education in the kingdom after I’ve gone.

Sikelela M. Dlamini, who contributes articles to Swaziland’s independent comment magazine, the Nation, is a frequent critic of the university.

He wrote the following article which appeared in the Swaziland Solidarity Network Forum yesterday (29 July 2008).

I think it is an interesting contribution to the debate not only about journalism in Swaziland, but also about what role a university (any university) should play in the kingdom.

On the parts of Dlamini’s article that address me, I can confirm that I quit UNISWA because it is impossible to get anything done. This is not particular to JMC; for example, there have been attempts to launch a diploma course in Portuguese that has been around for about 10 years.

The JMC degree as proposed is not ‘revolutionary’, but it is modern. The programme was devised after extensive consultation with media houses. The programme contains a lot of practical work and some academic courses (including one on ‘human rights’). (If you are interested in the details of the JMC programme email me at swazimedia@yahoo.com and I’ll send you a copy of the proposal document.)

The most unusual aspect of the JMC programme is its teaching and assessment methods. The methods proposed are common in universities across the world but are seen as challenging at UNISWA where it is all too common for ‘lessons’ to consist of someone standing in front of a group of students dictating notes. Assessment at present is mostly based on memory tests and three hour exams.

I believe there is room for a rational discussion about the role of UNISWA that deals in empirical fact. We should try to avoid subjective opinion and (such as Dlamini’s comments on the UNISWA registrar) personal attacks. I have collected data that suggests that UNISWA has issues regarding academic quality and might have trouble justifying its title ‘university’. We already know that UNISWA qualifications are not widely recognised outside of Swaziland (not even in South Africa, where the present JMC Diploma is worthless). In the UK, for example, no UNISWA undergraduate degree is recognised. Instead, the degree that took four years for a student to complete is seen as the ‘equivalent’ of one year’s undergraduate study at a UK university.

On the specific case of the Chair of Council’s car: this is not a matter for the University Council. The Commission of Inquiry on UNISWA that reported in 2006 said that UNISWA had no right to pay for such a car since the chair of council is not an employee of the university.

I welcome further debate on UNISWA. I am myself attempting to write a paper for an academic journal on UNISWA that addresses the role of a university (any university) in Swaziland. This subject is particularly relevant at present with the news that at least two private ‘universities’ could set up in the kingdom in the next few years.

Uniswa cannot have a proper journalism course!

In the January 2008 issue of the Nation magazine I wrote that the University of Swaziland (Uniswa) was a mere extension of the country’s undemocratic Tinkhundla system of governance. I questioned the qualifications of the incumbent VC and Registrar; the purchase of a Mercedes for the long-time royal chairman of Council; and the veracity of Uniswa’s claim to academic freedom given royal interference and the institution’s reliance on state subventions. In April, a fuming Registrar retorted that the VC satisfied all the qualification requirements for the position; that Uniswa’s Registrar did not need a PhD; and that the purchase of the Council chairman’s Mercedes was an exclusive Council decision and expenditure. The overall impression was that Uniswa is autonomous enough to carry out its mandate to teach, research, and disseminate information and knowledge to its stakeholders.

A four-year journalism degree course that should be commencing this August has stalled allegedly because the Deans Committee, a Senate sub-committee that sanctions academic programmes, among its functions, has yet to sort out infrastructural, administrative, and other such hurdles before the programme takes off, hopefully in the 2009/2010 academic year. The degree programme aims to replace a three-year diploma and enhance Uniswa’s Journalism and Mass Communication (JMC) department’s ability to produce journalists that will take their rightful place in charting the socio-economic and political course of a Swaziland at a crossroads. A prominent proponent of the paradigm shift has been Professor Richard Rooney who recently did not renew his contract, citing bureaucratic red tape as the major hindrance toward implementation of the revolutionary journalism programme. I argue that Uniswa is sorting out much more than just classroom space, equipment, personnel, etc., with regard to implementing the degree programme. It is simply not in the interest of Uniswa and its principal (the state) to expedite a proper course in journalism in the mould envisioned by the likes of Prof. Rooney; at least not just yet. Below are the reasons.

A proper journalism course would give rise to ‘sniffer-dog’ journalists who would not be satisfied with a superficial explanation that a person who does not qualify for the position of VC in February miraculously does so in April. It would produce investigative journalists who probe what Uniswa implies by arguing that the purchase of a Mercedes for its chairman of Council was an exclusive Council affair. It would produce hardnosed journalists who stop at nothing to find out exactly what makes it OK for Uniswa to have a non-PhD Registrar much against the overwhelming trend elsewhere. The Registrar’s is an important office whose overarching function includes academic staff development. The JMC degree course would flood Swaziland with journalists who would want to know how a non-PhD holder is well equipped to encourage his juniors to pursue such a qualification. They would want to know if the incumbent’s under-qualification isn’t partly to blame for the ever-rising rate of unsuccessful PhD degree pursuits by Uniswa staff. They would want to know if the Registrar doesn’t sniff with egotistic satisfaction at every protracted or failed PhD attempt because “what were they trying to prove anyway?” He simply hasn’t a clue what the rigours of PhD study entail to be able to provide the necessary psychological, etc., support that such an exacting academic undertaking demands. Proper journalists would want to know if Mr Registrar is cool with addressing his subordinates as “Dr So-and-so”. In other words, they would want to know if petty personal insecurities and jealousies don’t creep in to interfere with professional judgment. Common sense dictates that it is illogical for the boss to be less educated than the junior; unless the boss owns the company of course.

Yes, proper journalists would want to know if Uniswa can live totally off government subventions and still exercise its independent research mandate, including being critical of the monarchy and government where the need arises as per its presumed guiding principle of academic freedom (Uniswa isn’t just financially dependant on government, but King Mswati III, who is executive head of state and government, is Uniswa Chancellor. His half-brother, Prince Phinda, has been chairman of Council for at least a decade now). They would want to know if obvious royal, and by extension, government influence, does not in fact fly in the face of the very principle of academic freedom that on paper Uniswa professes to uphold and live by. A proper journalism course would produce journalists who wonder if journalism, as it is currently constituted and practised, is not implicated in the slow progress toward a truly democratic dispensation in Swaziland. For instance, local journalists have done a sterling job of exposing corrupt practices in government in recent years, but only to negate their admirable efforts by not insisting on punitive action for fear of stepping on the wrong toes and risking unemployment. These, in my considered opinion, constitute some of the real but never-to-be-acknowledged reasons for Uniswa’s efforts to frustrate the mooted degree programme; at least until such time that radical foreign influences such as Prof. Rooney are out and the right personnel are hired to run a more politically agreeable degree programme. Let us not forget that Uniswa has since the early 1980s engaged in a cold war with its own Social Sciences faculty for doing a good job of producing politically aware and critical students who have been in the vanguard of perennial student unrest at the country’s sole highest institution of learning.

Sikelela M. Dlamini

(PhD candidate, University of Cape Town)