On the University of Zululand’s website the institution proudly propagates its virtues with typical marketing flair.
‘Academic excellence’, pathway to success’ and ‘engineered for the future’ are the slogans that rotate continuously on the landing page.
Reality paints a different picture judging by the odour of decaying morals and withering ethics emanating from the hallowed halls of academia in recent times.
For the past three months we have been investigating a myriad of issues and allegations brought to us by those concerned with the future of Unizulu.
The work is far from over.
Already we have uncovered a degree-for-sale scam with as many as 4 000 students possibly involved since 1996. The Hawks are busy with an in-depth investigation to determine the full scope of the scandal – and the damage done.
Those that work at the institution tell us quietly, in hushed whispers, that anyone found to be going against the flow directed by management or expose transgressions are summarily booted out – a claim management vehemently denies. Some say they even fear for their lives.
Couple this with the fact that the university has an annual budget that could run a small town, and one begins to realise why profiteers are greedily circling the financial trough, ruthlessly purging anybody threatening to stand in the way.
It all came to a head last week Thursday and Friday when students took to the streets in Richards Bay and the main campus in KwaDlangezwa to voice their anger against shameful mismanagement which is effectively trampling the value of their qualifications into the mud.
Against the odds
Most of Unizulu’s students come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds and the sacrifices students’ poverty-stricken families have to endure to open the door of opportunity towards a better life for the next generation is often not fully understood.
Students’ challenges do not end with financial hardships and hunger though. A large percentage are also products of under-resourced schools, placing further hurdles in their paths of achieving academic success.
But they persevere and overcome, against all the odds earning their qualifications to take to the marketplace.
For a tertiary institution, where integrity is the one factor that may never be compromised, to then rip the carpet from underneath their graduates’ feet because of careless management shoving the university’s reputation into the gutters, thereby rendering all degree certificates under suspicious, is a travesty of the highest order.
A student summed up the dilemma perfectly: ‘If I now apply for a job with a Unizulu degree, they will only laugh at me.’
There is also the question of collateral damage.
If indeed thousands of students did not pass legally, how many unqualified graduates have landed senior positions in government and elsewhere based on their ‘qualifications’ and to what extent have their obvious incompetence cost the economy?
The university management over the past two decades have a lot to answer to. Will they take responsibility and fix things?
At the moment they’re not talking – and neither is Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande.
