ESWATINI
The higher education sector in the Southern African kingdom of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) is facing tough times with two high-profile universities experiencing financing squeezes.
The University of Eswatini (UNESWA), the country’s largest public national higher education institution, and the Southern Africa Nazarene University (SANU) – also public – are struggling with debts. This triggered protest actions in January – for example, from demotivated lecturers whose salaries have been delayed and part-paid and unhappy students who demanded that their delayed state scholarship allowances be paid.
UNESWA is the kingdom’s biggest university, with more than 7,000 students and about 300 staff. It has three campuses, in Kwaluseni, Mbabane and Luyengo.
On the other hand, SANU – a 2010 amalgamation of the Nazarene College of Nursing, Nazarene Teacher Training and the Nazarene College of Theology – had about 2,300 students in 2020, dropping to 1,700 after COVID-19, with numbers continuing to fall to around 1,400 students today.
‘Difficult times’
Their financial malaise continues, with UNESWA in July unable to pay full salaries to staff, said Acting Registrar Richard Masuku in a memorandum: “We regret to inform you that the university will not be able to pay staff their full salaries on payday due to insufficient funds. Each member of staff will receive a portion (93%) of his or her salary. It is hoped that the balance will be paid before the end of next week. The university asks for your forbearance in these difficult times,” it reads.
Unfortunately, the staff received the same memo in June, following other months when full salaries were not paid.
This has sparked industrial action. In February (2024), UNESWA examinations for the second semester of the entry year classes of 2022 and 2023 were postponed by one week at Kwaluseni and Luyengo campuses after lecturers boycotted invigilation over February salary part-payments.
Protest action
This follows pro-democracy protests from 2021 to 2023 in a country with no multiparty elections and whose King Mswati III has broad powers to appoint a prime minister and to veto laws passed by the non-party parliament.
SANU lecturers have also been upset by the uneven payment of salaries and a shortage of working equipment, such as science tech and teaching aids, including projectors. As a result, SANU lecturers protested at the offices of the kingdom’s Ministry of Education and Training in January (2024).
SANU Registrar Sipho Mhlanga released a memorandum at the time informing students about the resulting suspension of classes.
Financing problems
Mhlanga told University World News that both SANU and UNESWA had structural financing problems through relying on government subsidies and tuition fees.
“That is not enough to make the entities sustainable to support the operational costs of the institutions,” he explained.
“For example, a student pays (Swazi emalangeni) SZL15,000 a year (about US$829), yet there are high school pupils in this country who pay twice that amount,” he said. Swazi parents pay fees for secondary education, which is only free for orphans and children deemed ‘vulnerable’.
“The subvention doesn’t tally with operational costs – that’s the challenge,” said Mhlanga.
He said SANU has now written a strategic plan to achieve financial and resource sustainability: “We have resolved to run the institution as a business,” he said.
Mhlanga said SANU was working with a business consultant to develop a strategic plan for resource mobilisation and to secure more advice on tapping revenue from other possible income streams.
He said SANU was advertising new short courses, having established a Continuing Education (CE) wing “where we will offer short courses, and we believe that will boost our coffers”.
Government subsidies declining
National Workers Union of Swaziland Higher Institutions (NAWUSHI) general secretary Stan Simelane is also unhappy at these financing problems, claiming to University World News that government funding of tertiary education is decreasing.
This has been backed up by the Inhlase Centre for Investigative Journalism, an Eswatini media organisation, that claimed in April that the UNESWA 2024-25 budgets are the same as spending on the country’s Royal Emoluments and Civil List – both SZL456 million (about US$25 million).
Confirming that staff and student payments have been falling, Simelane said: “The lecturers are demotivated – at times they buy data from their pockets. How do you teach students who know that you are broke, and you struggle to get a salary at the end of each month? It’s embarrassing to lecturers!” said Simelane.
“The situation is fuelling a brain drain as the institutions fail to retain quality lecturers who decide to look for greener pastures outside the country, including in Europe.
“Also, the universities fail to attract competent, quality academic staff. No lecturer would want to work for an institution that does not pay well,” he told University World News.
The President of the UNESWA Students Representative Council (SRC), Zakhele Seyama, argued that politics was behind the funding squeeze, with the government prioritising spending on different budget headings, such as the police and the army.
Seyama said students found it tough to survive on their state allowances. “We get about SZL1,690 (about US$93) per month,” said Seyama. “It would have been better if we were getting at least SZL3,000 in local currency per month,” he added: “Our accommodation rent on-campus is SZL700 (about US$39) a month and students spend about SZL70 in local currency (about US$3.87) per day on meals, and we are expected to buy data, clothes and all other resources,” he said.
A sluggish economy
Spokesperson for the Eswatini Higher Education Institute Sivumelwano Nyembe (also a spokesperson of the Multi-Stakeholder Forum, a pro-democracy entity), said a majority of higher education institutions in Eswatini are facing financial challenges because of falls in enrolment following sluggish economic growth (forecast to be 3.7% in 2024 by the International Monetary Fund).
“My personal opinion is that a country without multiparty politics fails in its analysis of issues affecting the nation. Political parties in their individual capacities are able to give critical analysis of all sectors, then formulate policy solutions that are viable to address those national challenges to save the country,” said Nyembe.
“But to have a regime with one and the same people with the same thinking track, makes the state impotent to deal effectively with critical problems the nation faces.”
As a result, a broader public financial management crisis continues: “As a nation we need a national counselling programme that will help Swazis cope with the barrage of problems faced collectively by citizens,” said Nyembe.
Retired UNESWA political science lecturer Dr Petros Qambukusa Magagula blamed poor governance in Eswatini for its failing higher education system: “This financial crisis in the two institutions is fuelled by government’s political attitude towards higher education,” he explained.
“The regime no longer considers universities as important academic entities, as it used to in the past. It seems the state has observed that the monarchical system is under threat from the educated Swazis.
“And it is the university youths who are constantly challenging the monarch to introduce multiparty democracy in Eswatini. I think it is the reason there is an orchestrated move to destroy the university education by reducing the budget.
“The aim is to control Swazis more easily by having more citizens with little tertiary education. The bad economy is no excuse – we can do better with the available resources,” alleged Magagula.
King Mswati’s spokesperson, Percy Simelane, however, contested this narrative. He told University World News: “There is a budget for every public activity, service, or project in this country. It is not illegal for the Royal Family to get its budget too.
“Our experience is that it is mismanagement of funds that sinks government and quasi-governmental institutions.”
According to Simelane, there has been evidence of misappropriation of funds at UNISWA, adding: “We have no record of UNISWA or SANU monies being diverted to fund the Royal Family.”
He said police and army budgets have no impact on higher education spending, adding: “When the army or police have exhausted their budgets, the request for a supplement is made openly through parliament.”
He argued that, despite the lack of political parties, the Eswatini Parliament is elected: “Eswatini is a democracy. If it had not been, it would have long been kicked out of the global organisations it is a member of,” said Simelane.
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