Winnie Nhlengetfwa, the Vice Chancellor of the Southern African Nazarene University (SANU) continues to show a middle finger to the Constitution, her decision to deny leaders of the Students Representative Council(SRC) their right to education is now a matter of serious concern.
It is now evident that the Vice Chancellor is power drunk, perhaps after taking a sip of political power far above her jurisdiction to deal with these students leaders who are now victimized merely for leading a genuine protest action against government’s failure to pay students allowances on time. These leaders include President Tholumuzi Simelane, Secretary General Colani Maseko and Mfundo Gamedze, they were denied by the Vice Chancellor their right to register for the current semester, she allegedly told them to go to hell. Actually, Nhlengetfwa is not only showing a middle finger to the Constitution that support the right to education, she is actually undermining the intelligence of all parents in this country hence action must be taken by all concerned stakeholders.
Some parents spent monies under extremely difficult conditions to educate their children to reach the tertiary stage, only for a power drunk woman to destroy their future in this manner.
It is very disturbing to note that in this country, we have lunatic and power drunk individuals like the Vice Chancellor who utilize their energy not to develop this country but to destroy the future of the next generation. As a parent and head of that institution of higher learning, Nhlengetfwa ought to have understood that students are her children, as they grow, some would behave differently and disagree with her, she must correct no to destroy them. What kind of a leader that utilize huge energy to fix powerless students for leading a genuine protest? Some high-profile public figures in this country including Chief Justice Bheki Maphalala were once leaders of such protests during their time at University and we wouldn’t be having him as CJ today if the then institution’s administrators opted to destroy him in the manner adopted by the SANU Vice Chancellor. The administrators of the then University of Swaziland(UNISWA) understood that the then young Bheki Maphalala was their child who will one day grow to be a leader, they were patient and tolerated his conduct, this is what we call leadership.
Indeed, the inclusion of the right to education in the Constitution was not only meant to create a vibrant society with professional skills but to foster and or create a strong foundation for the development of this country. But the conduct of this Vice Chancellor is creating a bad precedent suggesting that students who exercise their right to protest should be completely destroyed and this, cannot be allowed in our modern society.
Parliament, the civil society, political leaders and all stakeholders should address this as a matter of urgency. It is no longer a matter that touch on these students but clearly, it has been hijacked by political elements to parade them as a deterrence example to all University students that anyone who might engage in a protest action will be dealt with in this ‘cruel’ manner. Government is struggling to pay students allowances on time because money feeds the royal family and this is a well calculated strategy to silence other students not to raise a voice against this political injustice.
As a country, we need to guard against any abuse of power, particularly from lunatic leaders like this Vice Chancellor who seemed determined to destroy the future of our children, as mentioned, her conduct will create a bad precedent suggesting that such cruel disciplinary measures could be adopted to deal with students. It should be noted that any disciplinary measure against these students should be implemented with intend to correct not to destroy them hence all stakeholders should now take action against this straying SANU Vice Chancellor.
SANU Vice Chancellor Winnie Nhlengetfwa