A university in Swaziland
has suspended student leaders for ‘misconduct’ for organising a protest over fees,
allowances and poor facilities.
And, all first-year
students at the campus in Manzini have been sent home indefinitely following
continued class boycotts.
It happened at the Southern
Africa Nazarene University (SANU).
The Student Representative
Council (SRC) Secretary-General Tiger Nxumalo and President Zamokuhle Mamba
were handed letters of suspension. Other members of the SRC executive were
informed verbally of their suspension.
The Swazi Observer (16 February 2018) quoted
Mamba saying they had been charged
with misconduct and were awaiting a disciplinary hearing.
A spokesperson for SANU said property had been
vandalised by protesting students.
Students at SANU have a
number of issues including delayed payment of allowances for first-year
students, withholding of ongoing students allowances, unreasonable allowance
reduction, lack of project allowances, exorbitant fees and poor infrastructure.
They petitioned the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and the Swaziland
Higher Education Council (SHEC) on Monday (12 February 2018). The petition came
after a class boycott that started on the previous Wednesday.
There have been class
boycotts across college campuses in Swaziland. Students at the kingdom’s
biggest university UNISWA have been protesting about delays in payment of
allowances. The university was closed on Monday.
SANU has a poor history of
student relations. In 2014, they were told they could not resume their studies
following class boycotts in the Faculty of Health Sciences unless they gave the
university the names of strike leaders.
Students were forced to
reapply to study and as part of that application they were told to complete
questionnaires which included three questions: How did the student body resolve
to boycott classes in the absence of a student representative council? Who was
responsible for calling all students out of their classrooms to join the
strike? Do you know who were in the forefront of the strike action / the
leaders? Name them.
The students went on strike
in a dispute over allowances, poor learning conditions in the
institution, insufficient books in the library and lack of laboratory equipment
for science experiments.
See also
STUDENTS MARCH ON GOVERNMENT
https://swazimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/students-march-on-government.html
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