UNISWA TO TEACH KING'S VISION FROM GOD

The state-funded University of Swaziland (UNISWA), which has King Mswati III as its Chancellor, is to incorporate ‘Monarchical Democracy’ into its academic programmes.

The university’s Vice Chancellor Prof Cisco Magagula made this announcement at the UNISWA graduation ceremony.

‘Monarchical Democracy’ is the new name given by the king to the tinkhundla system of government in Swaziland. Under this system King Mswati rules as an absolute monarch, political parties are banned from taking part in elections, and people are not allowed to elect any members of the kingdom’s Senate House.

Under ‘Monarchical Democracy’, the king appoints the Prime Minister, the government and judges.

In September 2013, King Mswati announced that he had received a vision (widely assumed to have been from God) in which he was told to introduce the new ‘Monarchical Democracy’ system of governance into Swaziland. Media in Swaziland which are always subservient to the king reported the announcement as if it heralded a new vision in democracy. Only, later, when interviewed by the international news agency Reuters, did the king admit ‘Monarchical Democracy’ was only a new name for tinkhundla, coined to make it easier for non-Swazi people to understand.

The tinkhudla system is widely recognised outside Swaziland as a non-democratic system of government.

At the UNISWA graduation ceremony on Saturday (12 October 2013), Prof Magagula said, ‘The university would also like to thank His Majesty and Chancellor for defining the Tinkhundla System of governance [‘Monarchical Democracy’]. As an institution of higher learning mandated to teach, undertake research, and generate new knowledge, we will ensure that this defining of the Tinkhundla System of governance is incorporated into our academic programmes.’

Prof Magagula did not disclose how the university intended to change its academic programmes in order to incorporate ‘Monarchical Democracy’.

See also

KING’S NEW NAME FOR NON DEMOCRACY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/kings-new-name-for-non-democracy.html

 

KING ADMITS NO CHANGE ON DEMOCRACY

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2013/09/king-admits-no-change-on-democracy.html

QUALITY AT UNIVERSITY OF SWAZILAND

I see the question of the quality of education at the University of Swaziland (UNISWA) is back in the news.

UNISWA Vice-Chancellor Professor Cisco Magagula has been defending standards at the kingdom’s only university.

He’s been trying to tell us that the class boycotts that his students engage in year after year don’t affect the quality of the diplomas and degrees they get. Fair enough, that’s his job.

The standards have been questioned again because the university has been closed down after students protested – along with students from all the kingdom’s tertiary colleges - against government policies.

Magagula told the Weekend Observer, a newspaper in effect owned by King Mswati III, sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, who is also the university’s Chancellor, that there are ‘robust quality assurance measures’ in place at the university.

He then told the Observer that students are required (among other things) to attend classes for so many hours per week. That’s what guarantees the quality.

Hang on. Haven’t the students been missing their classes and therefore not studying for the required period of time? In the years that I worked at UNISWA I’ve lost count of the number of times students have boycotted classes. Sometimes it was only for a day, other times, like during the dispute over semesterisation that dragged on over 2007 and 2008, the university closed down for several weeks.

But when the university reopened, the classes were lost for good. Not necessarily because the lecturing staff or students didn’t want to make them up, but just because there was no time.

In January 2008, during the long semesterisation dispute, the university even announced publicly that it would go easy on students at exam time.

This is what it said at the time:

‘In the event students find difficulty in answering questions based on material not covered in lectures, Senate has advised that students report such instances to their class representatives who should, in turn, inform the Examinations Officer in writing so that remedial action may be taken through appropriate University structures. The Senate took the position that no students should be disadvantaged on account of questions based on material not covered in lectures.’

Put simply this meant that students would only be examined on what they did manage to cover in class and not what they were meant to cover.

So much for UNISWA’s ‘robust quality assurance measures’.

SWAZI UNIVERSITY LANGUAGES GAFFE

Sometimes you have to laugh out loud at some of the things Swazi leaders do.

The latest guffaw comes at the news that Cisco Magagula, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), has raised concerns over the rate of unemployment in Swaziland.

He told a careers day at the university on Friday (3 April 2009) that there was a need to ‘create employability’ in the kingdom.

At the same event Republic of China on Taiwan Ambassador Leonard Chao encouraged the students to consider studying foreign languages. He said speaking more than two languages put people at an advantage when seeking work.

Who could disagree that in the global economy languages are important?

Well Magagula for a start. Last year he closed down the Modern Languages department at UNISWA. He did this without consultation with the department or the department’s host faculty. There is now only one modern languages lecturer in the university.

If UNISWA is serious about graduating students who are employable in the modern age they need to be a bit more far sighted than this.