SWAZI HIGH CHOIR CONDUCTOR DISQUALIFIED

Mbabane - Swazi National High School choir conductor has been disqualified for including  University of Eswatini (UNESWA) student to join the Choir during the Schools choral Competition.

The Eswatini Schools Choral Music Association hosted regional eliminations from June 19 to June 22. During the last regional competition at Divine Healing Ministries in Manzini, Swazi National High School choir under the intermediate category was flagged for including a university student as part of its choir.  During a conversation with Jockonias Mandlazi, who is the Secretary of the Eswatini Schools Choral Music Association, he confirmed that a university student was spotted among the high school pupils during the competition. “They used a university student, but we do know the name of the student. The school actually asked for someone to help them conduct the team as they did not have a conductor. The instructor agreed and brought a UNESWA student to be part of the choir. We were able to spot the defaulter and we were surprised because the competition is strictly for pupils,” Mandlazi said.

Suspension

Mandlazi further sent a stern warning to head teachers to be mindful of individuals who engage in defaulting. “We would like to let it be known that this competition is strictly for pupils. We would like to appeal to head teachers to be mindful of defaulting, because this will cause them suspension. When a school is found to have defaulted, we suspend the person who took the lead in defaulting. We expect pupils who are registered in schools and also those who are learning. We do not expect schools to bring people who have completed because this competition is for registered pupils,” he said. He further said they had to keep trophies won by the school in the intermediate category due to defaulting. “Swazi National High School scored number one overall winner in the intermediate category and they were regional champions in the Manzini Region, but we did not give them the trophies and we also did not call out their name as a punishment.

We will not suspend the school from the competition, but we suspended the conductor because he is the one who defaulted,” he said.   He further elaborated that they gave the scores to the pupils and they are expected to partake in the finals on Saturday, June 29, because they are aware that it is not the school that was wrong but the conductor. This means Swazi National will have to hire a new conductor to take the choir to the stage in the finals.  He also mentioned that there are few teachers in schools that have knowledge of Choral music, therefore, teachers tasked with giving an eye to the school choir tend to go and outsource a Choral expert to assist the pupils in learning the prescribed songs for the competition.  “It is known that some schools usually hire conductors, but we would like to caution head teachers to be mindful of defaulting during this process because we are cultivating the culture of Choral music in schools, winning is just a bonus,” he said.

Allegations

Tumelo Shongwe is the one who was the conductor for Swazi National High School. When reached for comment he confirmed the allegations, citing that defaulting was a desperate move because the bass was lacking in the choir.  “It is true, we were desperate because they approached me late to come and assist in the choir as the conductor who was assisting the school last year left them and decided not to carry on with the choir. The students who were part of the choir also left and that resulted in the decrease in the number of choristers in the choir. The person I had included in the choir was assisting the pupils in learning the songs for the competition, as we only had a month to prepare the songs to be ready for the competition.

On this one faithful day, I don’t know what type of a decision I had to take but I had to ask him to help the bass because the pupils were small in numbers.  It was a moment of desperation.
This was unfortunate as the one the adjudicator picked that up and noticed. We are still undergoing talks pertaining to the issue, and I have been ordered to write a letter of acknowledgement and apology that something like this will never happen again,” Shongwe said. One of the teachers at Swazi National High School, who is close to the school’s choir mentioned that she heard about the incident but is still not yet sure about the facts of it.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: