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UNESWA LECTURER HELD FOR RAPE

29/03/2019 09:01:00 BY STANLEY KHUMALO

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MBABANE – The expatriate lecturer accused of raping a student at the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) has been arrested.
The lecturer is said to have been arrested yesterday at about 2pm by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). His arrest comes after students at the institution had picketed and boycotted classes, seeking that he be brought to book for his alleged act.

The lecturer, who is under the Faculty of Science and Engineering, had received a letter of suspension from the administration of the institution pending the completion of the investigations by law enforcers following accusations that he had sexually violated a 21-year-old female student.

The arrest of the lecturer was confirmed by the Deputy Police Information and Communication Officer, Inspector Nosipho Mnguni.
“Yes, he was arrested and he’ll appear in court tomorrow,” she said.

Ecstatic

The SRC Chairperson of UNESWA’s Kwaluseni Campus, Sakhile Ndzimandze, was ecstatic about the developments and said this would bring relief to the students of his faculty. He said the relief would be in the form of not seeing him roam the campus.
“Even though he was suspended, the suspension was for him not to teach at the university and not to walk about. So, his arrest will keep him caged, away from the students,” Ndzimandze said.
Meanwhile, the arrested lecturer was suspended with another member of the academic staff, who is also in the same faculty.

This lecturer was accused of physically assaulting a pregnant student.

Their alleged conduct had prompted students to express their frustration with graffiti. The students, on Wednesday morning, abandoned classes and galvanised their companions in a class boycott against the duo.
During their picketing and class boycott, some of the students expressed their frustrations over the lecturers by inscribing what they thought of them. In red, on the door of the office lecturer accused of sexually violating their 21-year-old colleague, the students inscribed some graffiti and also pinned placards that were addressing the lecturer on the alleged sexual violation of the student. Some of what was written by the students cannot be repeated because of its sensitive nature.
On the lecturer’s door accused of beating a pregnant student, the students inscribed ‘sesidziniwe nguwe’ – meaning we are tired of you.

The defacing of the offices, according to Ndzimandze, was something the student leaders were against. He said even though they did not condone it, they understood that the students were frustrated by the gruesome acts allegedly committed by the accused.
“It was not a good move but I think it is because they were angry.”

Before painting the doors to the offices of the lecturers, the students had expressed that they did not want to see them in the campus’s premises, by locking the office of the lecturer accused of rape.
They had used their own padlock to do so. The enraged students had resolved to lock the office of the expatriate lecturer as they did not want to see him in the institution.
To this, Professor Justice Thwala, the Vice Chancellor of UNESWA, acknowledged that the students had vented their frustration through graffiti.

Wiped

“They had written on the doors of the lecturers but fortunately it was something that could be wiped away,” the professor said. Professor Thwala further applauded the students for being well-behaved during their protests.
He said the institution had suspended the two male lecturers following the intensity of the allegations levelled against them.

He said subsequent to the suspension of the lecturers, the university had to use one of its statutes due to the status of the allegations that were levelled against the lecturers.
“Through the use of the statute, we had to separate the alleged perpetrators and the survivors – thus their suspension.” He said while the duo has been suspended, mitigation factors have been put in place so that the students do not suffer while investigations into the alleged instances of assault are ongoing.

“The claims were reported to the police and the accused will have an opportunity to present their side of the story. That said, we express heartfelt empathy to the students and parents as they are traumatised.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Ndzimandze – the President of the Student Representative Council (SRC), said the students could not sit and ignore the gross violation of human rights by those in ‘power’.

Wayward

He said they (students) felt the institution was no longer safe for them. The students’ leader said they had engaged the vice chancellor about wayward conduct allegedly exhibited by the staff of the institution towards female students.
He said the students demanded that the survivors of the assault be afforded proper counselling. Ndzimandze said this stance was taken following that one of the students came across her alleged abuser along the corridors on Tuesday. To this, Professor Thwala said the institution had already instructed the office of the DSA to afford the survivors counselling.

This, the vice chancellor said, was a service that was part of the services offered by the office of the DSA.
Ndzimandze said students had informed the administration that they did not need to see the alleged perpetrators of the violence within the campus as that would continuously traumatise the survivors. “We don’t care about the ongoing processes; we just don’t need to see them at the campus.”

The irate students said they were very much disappointed by the male lecturers’ behaviour, which had disintegrated to a low that made them regard female students as items they could use and dispose of at their convenience.