COSTLY EQUIPMENT EXPOSED TO THEFT AT ECOT

MBABANE – From being ranked among the top tertiary institutions in the country, the Eswatini College of Technology (ECOT) has surely downgraded to junk status. 

This comes after allegations that the Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) has switched off power at the college over a debt of about E100 000. The move by the service provider has left the college in  darkness for the past two weeks.

This is despite that the college is home to equipment that costs millions of Emalangeni and the current situation is likely to attract thieves whose chances of walking away with the equipment bought using taxpayers hard-earned cash are very high.

According to a lecturer at the institution, electricity was switched off last week Monday and it has been dark to the present day. 

Indignity

He shared that it was indignity for a highly ranked institution to face challenges of this fashion, especially at a time when the world was migrating into the digital era and electricity was the basic commodity for such an exercise. 

“The gospel nowadays is online learning and tertiary institutions are encouraged to explore the platform for the sake of progress in studies as face-to-face learning has been suspended due to the persistent COVID-19 pandemic. However, we have no confidence as lecturers that the school is well-capacitated to execute the online learning if the very basic need for the exercise is not available,” shared the lecturer.

Another issue that was brought up by the lecturer, which also speaks to the junk status that the institution has downgraded to, is that of the sorry sight of the overgrown lawn and vegetation within the institution’s premises. 

He said the school last cleared its surroundings late last year and since then, it was nothing short of an abandoned farm. 

“The school has surely lost its dignity and to make matters worse, it is situated right next to a busy road where everybody can see. What is so unfortunate is that other tertiary institutions and general schools around the city have trimmed their vegetation and cleared the surroundings despite that there is no activity as schools are closed. It is so embarrassing,” shared the lecturer. 

A manager at EEC confirmed that the institution was among those that have had power switched off because they owed the service provider, but requested not to disclose the exact figure that the institution owed as that was confidential.

When contacted on the matter, EEC’s Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager Khaya Mavuso confirmed that there were multiple companies in their schedule which owed and the service provider had switched off power, without making a specific reference to ECOT. 

“We encourage that if people have a challenge with settling their debts with the service provider, they should come forward and engage us so that we reach an amicable solution,” he said. 

Efforts to get both the institution’s Principal Nomcebo Nhlengetfwa and Vice Principal Tsiwani Masina proved futile as the former’s mobile phone was not available while the latter’s phone rang unanswered when contacted over the weekend. 

Junk 

This is not the first renowned tertiary institution in the country to make headlines on having downgraded to junk status. 

The Nation Magazine reported last year that the University of Eswatini (UNESWA), once the pride of the country’s education system, had collapsed. The magazine reported that underfunding and abuse of the few financial resources it had  have been the cause of the mess. 

“Government has refused to fund the university adequately in the last 10 years and the results are now showing. Once revered as the Mecca of premier education institutions in the region, it has collapsed to the point where it is starting to look like a farce,” read the article from the magazine.

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