Africa-Press – Eswatini. The Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Mass Communication (BA JMC) Class of 2019/2020 graduates left guests and parents with question after they did not show up during the graduation on Saturday.
The seven graduands in the BA JMC class were part of the 4 392 (according to the Vice Chancellor Professor Justice Thwala) graduands who were conferred with degrees, certificates and diplomas across all the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) faculties.
The 41st graduation ceremony was for graduates under the 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022 classes and the first semester graduates under the 2022/2023 class.
The first group welcomed by His Majesty King Mswati III was that of 2019/2020 before moving on to the other groups.
The BA JMC graduands under the faculty of humanities were called after the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities graduates to bow before the king.
The graduands were presented by Dean of the Faculty of Humanities Professor Francis Rakotsoane to his Majesty.
Rakotsoane called out the graduands three times to stand in front of their Majesties but there was no response. Guests who were in the large marquee where graduands sat were heard mumbling while some looked around the marquee to determine if there was any response.
Some were heard saying the programme must continue as the graduands had boycotted.
After a few minutes the programme proceeded whereby graduands from the Institute of Distance Education (IDE) were called out to be conferred with their degrees.
classes
Despite the no-show by the 2019/2020 class, some graduands from the other classes showed up to be conferred their degrees.
Under the 2020/2021 class, 22 graduands were supposed to graduate but only one graduand attended.
Also under the 2021/2022 class, eight graduands were meant to graduate but only four graduands showed up. Reacting to the graduation snub, one of the graduates said the ceremony to her was a short notice to her as she did not prepare anything. She said she spent a lot of money preparing for the previous graduations that were eventually cancelled.
She explained that she did not want to incur any financial burden yet was not working.
“For us, we have to book a make-up artist, getting your nails and hair done and putting your family into one place, all these require money we don’t have,” she said.
She applauded those who managed to show up as they represented them in the ceremony.
Another graduate shared the same sentiments, saying they were frustrated by the previous cancellations.
She said in the previous instances they prepared for the day, spending their hard earned money only for the ceremony to be cancelled at the last minute.
The graduate explained that by snubbing the ceremony, she managed to save the money she would have spent on the day.
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