Students getting involved in politics

MBABANE – The Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) is mobilising tertiary students to take a lead in the transformation of the country’s political landscape.

The union has embarked on a campaign to transform the country’s education and by extension, society in general – the student union is now criticising the government loudly.

　"We are members of, first the respective communities where there is no water or regard for people’ inherent rights, before we can become students," said the association’s President Maxwell Dlamini.

He explained that the SNUS has always insisted that their role, apart from being to deal with concrete students issues, is to also help bring about a political system in Swaziland that upholds the rights and welfare of students and other citizens alike.

This was during an interview with the Times SUNDAY where he announced the organisation’s forthcoming congress, slated for October 12 to 14.

The theme for this year’s congress, according to Dlamini, is: "Building a united, vibrant and radical student movement in Swaziland to transform education and society."

The actual venue for the congress is yet to be announced.

Maxwell Dlamini, Pre-sident of the student entity, however, explained that du-ring the event, students would get an opportunity to pau-se and take stock on pro-gress thus far; whether they have been able to achieve their goals or there are some cracks or fissures that need to be filled in their journey to build a better Swaziland.

He said the students also analyse the prevailing conditions in the country at the time.

"That is whet-her the situation is conducive to the learning process, or there are so-me cha-nges that students need to propose in order to safeguard their right to education, as enshrined in the constitution," he said.

Asked to elaborate on the choice of the theme, Dlamini said as future leaders they felt it was necessary for students to take a leading role on societal issues. He said, as a student body, they were convinced that the prevailing socio-political conditions in the country have played a catalytic role in degrading the standards of education, and if nothing serious is done about the situation, the country’s next generation of leaders would inherit a society that is a cataclysmic failure.

"A lot of students enrol for varying programmes in the country’s tertiary institutions but only a few are absorbed by the market. This surely signals a lot of flaws on how the country is run, and could have serious ramifications for any progress," he said.

SNUS has invited foreign delegations, including student organisations, unions and others from around the world to take part in the forthcoming conference.

Activities over the duration of the event will include

presentations, discussions, and workshops on the role of education in development.

Dlamini said among the invited attendees would be people who showed support to the organisation during his incarceration, allegedly on charges relating to possession of explosives – in April 2010 –,"especially those that were involved in the Free Maxwell Dlamini-campaign" that he says played an important role in him being released on bail.

Dlamini said there was everything wrong in a society where the leadership remained extravagant while two thirds of the population lives in poverty, where secondary and tertiary education is well beyond the means of most people, and where the scholarships of those who have somehow been able to afford further education have been lowered as a consequence of Swaziland’s financial quagmire that is mainly due to government corruption, overspending and financial mismanagement.

The student body also welcomed as a positive step forward a decision taken by the University of Swaziland leadership to encourage students to participate in national politics.

This follows recent remarks by the institution’s Vice Chancellor Cisco Magagula during the orientation programme for novice students, where he said, "Listen carefully. By virtue of being 18 years and above means that you are now adults. You have a right to participate in national politics."

This is a sentiment also shared by Wilson Ntshangase, Minister of Education, who said there was nothing sinister about students taking up a leading role in national politics, so long as it was done within the confines of the law.

"We are talking of fully grown adults here, and not high school children. If they were to be left behind, of course, they would remain foolish throughout their lives," he said.

Institutions of higher learning in the country and elsewhere have always become a scene of periodic outbursts of dissent. This has always provoked the country’s leadership, which reacted with force.

The early eighties’ Kwaluseni campus protests, for instance, gave birth to the now proscribed political entity, the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO).

　

　

　

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