Africa-Press – Eswatini. Pupils are now standing their ground and refusing to be part of protests.
This message was loud and clear when Swazi National High School pupils surprised the University of Eswatini students when they disrupted their lessons on Monday to recruit them to take part in a protest action.
Unlike in last year’s events when pupils took to every protest that erupted in schools, the script read differently when the Kwaluseni campus students invaded their school to drag them out of their classes and on to the streets.
This was when students in all three campuses of the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) and Southern African Nazarene University (SANU) went on a rampage following the arrest of the President of Swaziland National Union of Students (SNUS) Colani Maseko.
The students from the Kwaluseni campus stormed the school while singing struggle songs and interrupted classes, forcing pupils to abandon lessons and join their strike action.
Their intention was to recruit the pupils to join them as they marched to the Manzini Police Regional Headquarters to demand the immediate release of the SNUS president who was detained together with two students.
However, they had not bargained for the reaction from the school pupils who stood their ground and refused to join the protest.
Instead, they told the students point black that they were not willing to join the strike action as they wanted to learn in order to make it to university, just like them. After realising that the pupils were not showing any signs of adhering to their request, the students vacated the premises of the school, while the pupils returned to class and proceeded with their lessons unabated.
Swazi National High School Principal Brian Dlamini confirmed the matter. He confirmed that the UNESWA students did storm his school and disrupted lessons by forcing the pupils out of class to join the protest, however they refused to comply, but instead they (pupils) sent them away and continued with their lessons.
Acting Manzini Regional Educational Officer (REO) Sizwe Kunene confirmed that he received reports from Swazi National High School authorities that there were disturbances that were caused by the UNESWA students at the school on Monday.
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