Armed police in Swaziland
fired rubber bullets and arrested eight students when they put a rubbish skip
in the middle of a road during a protest.
It happened at Limkokwing
University, Mbabane.
Students were protesting about
poor wi-fi internet connections. It was part of a continuing protest against
poor teaching and facilities.
The Swazi
Observer, a newspaper in
effect owned by King Mswati who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last
absolute monarch, reported on Thursday (15 March 2018) students put a
‘litterbin’ in the road near a market which caused motorists to slow down and
‘gingerly negotiate’.
The newspaper reported, ‘This
prompted police to spring into action and fire warning shots aimed at
dispersing the rowdy students.’ It added students were ‘shocked to the core’.
Students were protesting
that internet facilities had been poor for a long time and they were unable to
meet deadlines to produce assignments.
The university has since
been closed indefinitely.
Limkokwing is the private university that was chosen
by King Mswati to house his University of Transformation
to take students from across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)
region. The King became chair of SADC in August 2016 when he pledged the
university would be operating by August 2017. Nothing
substantial happened and the plan remains stalled.
Limkokwing, part of an
international group of campuses, has been controversial since it opened in
Swaziland in 2011. Students and education commentators have highlighted the
poor quality of courses, staff and resources. Limkokwing in
Swaziland only offers ‘associate degrees’ which are at a level below Bachelor
degrees and in many colleges are known as diplomas.
In 2016, a Swaziland
parliamentary committee investigated the standard of qualifications held by
academic staff at the university after students petitioned that many lecturers
only held Bachelor degrees and had just themselves qualified from the
university.
At that time fees for each Swazi student was E8,000
(US$577) a year for tuition. The government added an additional E33,700 as
accommodation and meal allowance and E9,000 as a book allowance.
Educational standards at Limkokwing are lower than
those at other universities, including the University of Swaziland. It does not
require students to have qualifications in the English language. In June 2012, Bandile Mkhonta, Head of Human Resource
for Limkokwing in Mbabane, told
local media that of 53 professional staff at the
university only one had a Ph.D doctorate. A Ph.D is usually considered by
universities to be the minimum qualification required to be given the rank of
senior lecturer. Limkokwing in Swaziland had no staff at professor rank and no
record of conducting scholarly research.
The Swazi
Observer reported
Mkhonta saying Limkokwing had fewer Ph.Ds because it was
a ‘non-conventional’ university whose curriculum was mainly based on practice
than theory.
The university was launched
in Swaziland only after an intervention by King Mswati. In
June 2011, it emerged that the university’s founder Tan Sri Dato Lim Kok Wing had
a meeting with King Mswati and convinced him that Swaziland
needed a new university – and Limkokwing should be it.
He persuaded
the King that low-level courses in such subjects as Graphic
Designing, TV & Film Production, Architectural Technology, Advertising,
Creative Multimedia, Information Technology, Event Management, Business
Information Technology, Journalism and Media, Public Relations and Business
Management, would help Swaziland which is mainly an agricultural society to
prosper.
Once the King gave his support nobody in his kingdom
stood in its way. Limkokwing started in Swaziland illegally because an Act of
Parliament was needed to set up a university, but Limkokwing was allowed to
start without parliament’s approval.
The cash-strapped government that was seeking ways to
save money on higher education at the kingdom’s established University of
Swaziland offered Limkokwing US$2 million a year it could not afford for
scholarships for up to 800 students.
Soon after Limkokwing opened, students began
protesting that they were not getting their allowances and there were no
textbooks and too few laptops. There were at least 20 protests,
class boycotts and closures during the first year after it opened. Police used teargas and rubber bullets
against protesting students. One student was shot in the leg.
In October 2016 police
fired gunshots at students at Limkokwing and at least four
students received ‘serious injuries’ during protests about the poor quality of teaching at the university and
inferior facilities.
There have been numerous protests at Limkokwing, and
across other campuses in Swaziland, against government for not
paying allowances on time.
See also
STRIKE AT SWAZI KING’S SADC UNIVERSITY
NEW
SWAZI UNIVERSITY SUBSTANDARD
KING
FELL FOR BOGUS UNIVERSITY
http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2011/06/king-fell-for-bogus-university.html
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