The fall of UNESWA – Kingdom of Eswatini public spending on education questionable

Just about a decade ago, University of Eswatini (UNESWA), Also known as “The University of Choice in Africa”, was ranked just about the top 30 universities in Africa. The institution now sits outside the top 150, but what are the contributing factors towards the fall of this once so great university? One of the most visible factors leading to the fall of the university is poor maintenance, the infrastructure has been the same ever since the university was opened. “They fail to fix something as simple as shower caps,” one of the students mentioned on a live interview on Swaziland News. Secondly, Debts! As of 10 September 2022, the AG reported that the university accumulated a net deficit of over E1 billion and a net operating deficit of about E180 million. The staff have been engaging in numerous strikes as the university would tend to delay their salaries, and some of the premiums they were subject to were never cleared. There have been suspicions of corruption by the council’s chairman, Prince Simelane. With a majority of students being sponsored by the government, which is also “broke”, delayed payments of student allowances also causes disruption in the university as the students would then engage in strikes and boycott classes. This then leads to a prolonged academic year for the students, this academic year, a semester which under normal circumstances is supposed to be not longer than six months, took over 10 months. (Uneswa Staff and Students join for a protest) With all that is happening at Uneswa, the main question is how much is being invested in Education in the Kingdom of Eswatini?