Remembering 9 - 10 December 2007; When University of Swaziland burned down

This week I recall 9 December 2007, the night when we, students of the University of Swaziland (UNISWA), scored a memorable victory over the historically all-powerful UNISWA Senate, the University Council and the government of Swaziland. At that time I was not a member of the Student Representative Council (SRC).

The day was a Sunday, but it was clearly not a normal Sunday. The whole week the weather had been unkindly hot but for some reason on this particular Sunday the drizzling rain decided to pay us a little visit.

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By this time we were collectively known as the ‘Choir.’ All students belonged to this ‘Choir.’ The 9^th of December is not a story about the day of 9 December per se. It is a story that shall always remain a point of reference and inspiration to many in so far as student activism is concerned. The broader mass democratic movement of Swaziland can also learn important things such as utmost commitment, and the importance of resolutely sticking together and forging ahead notwithstanding vicious attacks from the enemy in order to attain the desired goal. 9 December 2007 is therefore about a story of the people of Swaziland.

To bring everybody on board it is important to briefly trace the events that led to the all-important day of 9 December, 2007. When we came to register for the 2007/08 academic year in August 2007 we discovered that the university Senate had willy-nilly imposed a concept called ‘semesterization’ on all students, even to those on whom the semesterization concept was extraneous. The worst thing was that they had done it without consulting the students. The Senate had imported wholesale a concept they had seen working in other countries without bothering to analyse how those international universities were implementing that programme and thereby see the best way of implementing it in Swaziland. No consultation whatsoever was ever conducted.

For these reasons we started protesting against such tyranny. It was always believed that when the Senate had decided on an issue, no one could ever overturn it; all was decided and all was final, so said some of the cowards! But this breed of students was just about to rewrite the books of history. A court case was even launched with the High Court to force the Senate to consult us. Countless court journeys were made, but we were unsuccessful in a case presided over by Maphalala, J, who told us that we should go back and exhaust internal remedies. We strongly disagreed with the judge. It was a wrong decision. By the time judgment was passed the university premises were already controlled by the police. Riot police with big bullet-proof tankers had already set up camp with an order to violently deal with the students if the need arose.

Despite disagreeing with the Judge’s decision, we nevertheless respected it because of his statement that we must sit down with the Senate and resolve this issue. At this stage we had managed to mobilise the majority of students to such an extent that no classes took place when we had a students’ meeting or protest action. Such unity had never been seen probably since the early 1990s.

We were shocked by the narcissistic and egocentric Senate’s egregious decision to continue with the implementation of the programme despite the court’s order for the reconstitution of the consultation table. This move enraged us. We instantaneously resolved to continue with class boycotts, and that we were not going to write examination unless proper consultation took place. I remember very well that even the signing of continuous assessment marks became the most evil thing to be done by any student. Signing them simply meant that you were finally giving in to the Senate’s dictatorship, thereby a traitor.

The Senate tried the old divide-and-rule tactic of shutting down the university and sending all students home, but it always failed this time. We always planned ahead for such eventualities and were able to mobilise students even when the university was shut down.

A few days before the 9^th of December we made a court application for an urgent interdict staying the illegal examinations which had been scheduled to commence on the 10^th of December. However, Justice Mbutfo Mamba dismissed our case. The decision was delivered without reasons on the 9^th of December 2007. We were not satisfied with this judgment too. In fact we were furious!  

We therefore resolved to have a ‘night vigil’ in one of the small classes. It was in this vigil that we resolved that there only people who would stop the exams was not the Senate, not the courts, not prayer, but the students themselves. It was clear to us all that unless we did something ourselves our future was doomed. Everybody started running outside and in about an hour the whole University was on fire.

In the morning of December 10, we made it impossible for first examination papers to take place. We stomped the gate and ensured that no one went in or out. The Senate later yielded to our demands and the December examinations were postponed indefinitely. We had won against the so-called mighty Senate of the University of Swaziland.

One of the most important lessons of December 9, a night which some of the students later called ‘A bright Sunday Night’, is that unity in action will always prevail over anything. Unity of boardrooms and useless meetings never works! This is why all the students who sacrificed everything they had in order to see semesterization dead will always have a special place in my heart.

Of course, after the burning down of the university many people suddenly woke up from wherever they had been sleeping and called the students many bad names anybody can think of. Times of Swaziland’s Managing Editor, Martin Dlamini, who happens to be King Mswati’s speech writer, even referred to us as barbarians, hooligans and bandits. This was so foolish for a respected man who had been silent all the time when the Senate was roughshodly imposing an academic system on the students, but only to wake up after the consequences. I could tell from the reading of his article that he was not thinking. If he was thinking then he was not thinking properly. Blaming a child for crying will not stop her or him from crying if you do not stop the violent adult who keeps assaulting her or him. 

Conclusion

As the UNISWA students of 2007 proved to all, there is no struggle that can ever be won by following the rules of the enemy. Some rules are so unjust that we must necessarily violate them. The Senate closed down the university every time we boycotted classes, hoping to dampen our spirits, but every time when we returned we continued with the struggle more fiercely than before. We went to the point of defying all court decisions, something which still needs to be assimilated into the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) in the fight against the royal dictatorship of Swaziland!  

Back then we were united, but this unity did not fall from the sky. We had to build it. The struggle would not have been won if a tiny but resolute minority of students had not done serious mobilisation and conscientisation on a daily basis. I am proud to have been part of such group. In this group we met before and after any student body meeting in order to thoroughly analyse meetings and direction. Amazingly, none of us were even SRC members, but we were more influential than the SRC of that time. No students’ resolution was ever adopted without our endorsing it, and no students’ resolution was ever adopted without our giving input. We were effectively the unelected leadership of the whole university. This is one of the important factors that the Swaziland struggle lacks; the influential unelected leadership of the people! 

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