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By KWANELE SIBIYA AND BONGIWE DLAMINI | 2024-10-22
IT never rains, but pours for the University of Eswatini (UNESWA) as the Eswatini Water Services Corporation (EWSC) has disconnected water supply at the Kwaluseni campus as a result of an over E8 million bill.
This comes shortly after the university’s two campuses (Kwaluseni and Luyengo) were closed indefinitely about two weeks ago, following a protest by students over allowances.
The latest water interruption is the sixth to happen at UNESWA this year alone. One happened in May, three times in July, another in September. In some communiqués that were sent by the university during these months, they said it was a result of burst water pipes.
The university, through acting Registrar Richard Masuku, issued a memorandum last week informing the stakeholders that there was interruption of water supply at the institution since Tuesday and further requested staff based at the Kwaluseni campus to work from home until the supply of water at the campus had been restored.
“Following the interruption to water supply at the Kwaluseni Campus since Tuesday (October 15), a decision has been taken by management to request staff based at the Kwaluseni campus to work from home until the supply of water to the campus has been restored. The university regrets the inconvenience caused,” reads the memorandum in part.
Bill
According to Masuku although he said he did not recall the accurate amount owed off the cuff, the university’s debt to EWSC ranges between the region of E8 million and E9 million in respect of the water bill.
This is more or less the same amount that the institution owed to Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) in June when power supply was cut-off.
Regarding the latest incident, the acting registrar pointed out that the management could not recall students to resume face-to-face learning at the university when there was no water.
However, he said they were hoping that the situation would be resolved within a space of one to two weeks.
Masuku said once the situation had been rectified, students would then be recalled to resume their face-to-face learning.
While local lecturers were instructed to work from home during this period, other university employees resident within the Kwaluseni Campus were affected by the unavailability of water.
Dr Mduduzi Shongwe, Secretary General (SG) for the Association of Lecturers, Academic and Administrative Personnel (ALAAP) said in the meantime, employees who reside within the Kwaluseni Campus were provided with water in tanks.
Even so, he said this was unfair on the employees because they still paid for utility bills.
“Their contribution towards the utility bills is deducted from source every month and it reflects so in their payslips,” stated Shongwe.
He added that this was not the first time that the university employees who reside on campus were affected by the institution’s failure to pay bills as it happened earlier this year.
As a result, Dr Shongwe said the association requested the institution to de-link the employees’ residential quarters’ utility accounts from the university’s.
“If each house could have its own water and electricity meters, the employees could be able to pay their own bills rather than be inconvenienced this way when they have paid,” emphasised Shongwe.
Efforts to get a comment from Masuku regarding progress on the lecturers’ request to have their utility accounts delinked from the institution’s proved futile as his phone rang unanswered. A questionnaire was sent to him but he had not responded by the time of going to print.
The last phone call to Masuku was made at 7:13pm yesterday.
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