By the SRC President of the University of Swaziland
Issued: 12 May 2016
Introduction
On Tuesday the 2nd of May 2016 I left the country for Port Elizabeth to check on Ayanda Mkhabela who is currently undergoing physiotherapy in Aurora hospital after she was injured by a police casspir during a students’ protest which took place on the 22nd of February 2016. The visit was facilitated by the university management after a request made by the Students Representative Council. I spent one night in Johannesburg and proceeded to Port Elizabeth the following day by air transport.
The purpose of the visit was to get to know the
wellbeing and wishes of Ayanda after the accident and this purpose was not an
end in itself. The ultimate one is to inform the rest of the university
community and all those who are concerned and who remain with unfading support
for Ayanda and which have been unfortunately and deliberately deprived
information regarding the welfare of Ayanda. It should be on record that it was
the Students Representative Council's first time to officially meet Ayanda
after the accident following that students’ leaders were never accorded the
opportunity to meet her while she was in Swaziland's health facilities and they
were further not accorded the opportunity to bid her farewell when she was
transferred to Port Elizabeth. It should also be on record that the office of
the Dean of Students Affairs made constant visits to Ayanda without the
Students’ Representative Council while under normal and professional
circumstances it was supposed to involve the students’ council.
I had an opportunity to meet Ayanda on
Wednesday the 3rd and Thursday the 4th of May 2016 in her hospital ward; ward
B11. I was pleased and encouraged to learn that Ayanda remains strong and she
is taking the blow tough as it may be like a strong woman. She was lively and
visibly happy for the duration of my stay with her although we would have some
tense moments in some part of our discussion. Consciously aware of the
sensitiveness of her situation, I made a plea to her that she openly and
honestly divulge her thoughts, feelings and wishes without reservation and she
just did. We discussed the protest, the accident, her stay in the two health
facilities of Swaziland, her move to Aurora and her welfare there, the Justice
for Ayanda Campaign and her wishes moving forward.
Ayanda’s thoughts on the protest and the accident.
To begin with, Ayanda does not see herself as a
victim of an unjust course and she openly declared that she does not regret
herself taking part in the protests despite that it resulted on her being
injured. She said she was not invited nor was she forced to join the strike but
she did so voluntary and she does not regret that. She holds the view that she
is a victim of a police force that refuses to modernise and one that still
carries with it medieval operation principles. She believes that the demands
that the students were raising were genuine. Ayanda will give much of her
account on the accident to a commission of inquiry but she did declare to me
that she heard that the police officer who was driving the casspir went to her
family to apologise for his act and she have not yet come to her but she was
firm on that she will never forgive that police officer so long as she will be
on a wheel chair.
Ayanda further said that she will continue to
support all students’ struggles that are waged on behalf of the underprivileged
young people of the institution.
Her stay in Swaziland’s health facilities.
Ayanda was first transported to Ralegh Fitkin Memorial Hospital (RFM) after the accident, she was transported unconscious in a police van that was not designed to ferry people on her condition. First, she decries the manner in which she was transported to hospital and she hold the view that perhaps if the police waited for paramedics she would not have suffered this much. In her account, he gained her full consciousness in RFM hospital, it is there where she learnt that she was injured but she could not recall a lot that had happened before. She recalls that police officers visited her and asked her if she remembers what happened and she responded to the contrary and they told her that she was trampled on by protesting students. However, this claim is nullified by the scars on her back and the extent of her injury and the masses of students who were there during the night of the protests.
She was them moved to Manzini Clinic where she
was operated and where the sad news was divulged. It is here where several
attempts by the SRC to see her were futile and she said she was never consulted
by anyone on the decision to prohibit students’ leaders and she would always
appreciate our visits.
She believes her move to a physiotherapy hospital has been helpful. In her account, when she got to Aurora she couldn’t sit up on her own and all she could do was sleeping but now she can sit up straight and exercise. She however expressed the convenience of being in Aurora, she said she is bothered by being far from her child, family and friends.
She believes her move to a physiotherapy hospital has been helpful. In her account, when she got to Aurora she couldn’t sit up on her own and all she could do was sleeping but now she can sit up straight and exercise. She however expressed the convenience of being in Aurora, she said she is bothered by being far from her child, family and friends.
Ayanda’s health and welfare in Aurora Hospital
Doctors in Swaziland concluded that her chances of using her lower limbs are very minimal and indeed Ayanda will be done with her physiotherapy treatment by 30 May 2016 but still there is no little promise that the condition might change. According to her, she does not feel soft touches on her lower parts of the body. Ayanda further openly expressed that she has lost weight in the facility something which she thinks is caused by the food she is served at the facility. She said the food sometimes becomes so terrible such that she would not swallow two mouthfuls. She was not afraid to declare that she raised this concern to the university management during one of their visits but that concern was absolutely ignored.
She further complained of boredom, she is
virtually alone inside her ward with only her laptop and a television which she
no longer find interesting.
Ayanda also expressed that she dearly misses
her child and family and her university friends.
What are Ayanda’s wishes?
Her first and foremost wish is to be able to walk again. Ever since the news that she might never walk again were brought to her, her trust is remaining with God. She believes that if it will not be by God's wisdom to provide for medical breakthroughs that will help her it will be by miracles through his servants on earth.
Second, she is conscious of that her new condition will deprive her lot of things. She will not be able to do some of the things she used to do before and life will be undoubtedly difficult. It is her wishes to be independent like she was before her new condition, to enjoy all the God given and social rights that will keep her dignity intact and she does not wish to reach the point of being a beggar on the streets.
Ayanda also wishes to remain a student of the
University of Swaziland despite that most of the facilities in the institution
do not accommodated people of her condition.
Lastly, she wishes to see the law taking its
course to the police officers who was driving the caspir.
Her appeal for all assistance
Ayanda is grateful and highly appreciates all the form of assistance and support that she has been receiving from students, the university management, the church, the civil society and the general public. She prays that God blesses all of them equally and abundantly.
She refuted the notion that her matter shall be
left on her family to deal with it with respect and privacy. She expressed that
she only leans on her grandmother and grandfather and she believes that this
load is far bigger than them. She therefore appeals for assistance to everyone
who might assist her in whatever way during her tough times.
Conclusion
The Student Representative Council joins Ayanda in expressing its gratitude to all those who have assisted her in whatever way and we also join her in the appeal for assistance. We fully support her wishes and it is our pledge that we will fight to the end for the realisation of her wishes. To us these wishes are sound and genuine. We would like to as well thank the university management for facilitating this visit and we further urge it to join all forces genuinely and with utmost sincerity in seeking to ensure justice for Ayanda. Justice for Ayanda is nothing else but the realisation of the above mentioned wishes. The university must begin to prepare itself for accommodating people with disabilities, not just for Ayanda but for all the people with disabilities in the country who have the potential of getting to the university. We further urge the management to avail its personnel to objectively advice and assist the Student’s Representative Council in the quest for ensuring her justice as defined.
Report by Brian Sangweni
UNISWA SRC
President
