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Kylle Schwegman, who was graduating with a doctor of philosophy degree in nature conservation, was supposed to have been the last student to be capped at the George campus of Nelson Mandela University last Friday, and then the graduation season at the campus, which is in the Western Cape, would have been concluded.
But that did not happen. Instead, the normal graduation protocol was broken to allow an undergraduate student, Entle Saba, to cross the stage after the red gowns.
Saba was more than an hour late for the graduation ceremony and, had she arrived a minute later, she would have not walked on to the stage on that day.
This is because, immediately after she was capped by vice-chancellor Professor Sibongile Muthwa, the university head announced the end of the procession, ending the three-day graduation season at that campus.
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Speaking to City Press this week, Saba said she could not imagine how her day would have ended if she had not been able to take to the stage and graduate.
She said she had booked a cab the previous night to fetch her from her campus residence in the morning and drop her off at the off-campus graduation venue in George. But the cab never arrived. The driver did not answer his phone or respond to her texts.
“I tried to arrange with the SRC [student representative council] president to help me, since he has his own transport. He was already at the venue, but he regularly updated me that ‘now your class is the one graduating and you are not here, and I don’t think you still need to come’. I told him I am still coming,” she said.
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The SRC president ended up fetching her and she arrived more than an hour after the graduation proceedings had started, and just a few minutes before the event was about to be concluded.
Saba said it takes 30 minutes to travel to the centre of town in George from the university, and cab drivers were not keen on transporting students after the floods last year destroyed the shorter route to the campus.
Milisa Piko, the George campus communications manager, said that, since November, the road leading to the university had been under construction following the floods.
The campus was now only accessible via the Wilderness back road through the Seven Passes. Said Piko:
Saba said, when she got to the venue, one of her friends met her at the door and told her that there was no point in her being there and that she should just come inside and sit down as the procession was almost done.
“I started crying at the door because I was thinking, ‘I hired this [the graduation attire] for nothing’. I was thinking I was supposed to have walked on stage and my family was supposed to watch me on YouTube. I was thinking that they would not see me and that also triggered me.”
Officials who were running the logistics of the graduation ceremony called her aside and consoled her.
“I cried and I cried. They also told me not to leave the [holding] room and to stay there until I stopped crying. When they realised that I would not stop crying, they allowed me to go through. And it felt good,” she said.
Saba said that, while she was crying, she was thinking about why she bought her dress – why she had dressed up if she ended up not graduating. Her family would be disappointed in her because she was known to be a serial latecomer.
“My family was [going to be] upset that they invested a lot of money [to see me graduate] and I was late [for graduation]. And they [would have] thought it was of my own doing because I am always late. But that day I had made arrangements not to be late, but at the end of the day I was.
Professor Azwinndini Muronga, the executive dean of the faculty of science who was responsible for calling the names of the graduates to be conferred their degrees, told City Press he did not know why Saba was late, but did not think twice in allowing her to cross the stage. However, he said he had not expected to see another student coming through after he had concluded the list of PhD graduates.
“I wouldn’t have been privy to what was happening behind the stage except having received a note that there was one student who arrived late. I got two notices, one from the registrar’s division and the other from the lady who was marshalling the students as they were coming on board,” said Muronga.
He added that, because the student had tried to be present at the graduation, he was not going to deny her the opportunity to graduate because she was not late on purpose. Said Muronga:
“Therefore, we might be having this protocol for now, given the circumstances we know these students are in.
“For me, it was a no-brainer to allow that student to walk the stage because I understand that [with an] African child, you don’t even ask questions. You know she would have not done this on purpose, you know there must be a very good reason why she was late,” Muronga added.
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Saba, who is now studying for a postgraduate degree in forestry, said she would be better prepared next time after almost missing the day she had always dreamt of.
“Honestly, I have learnt my lesson ... next time, I will never be late again because I almost missed the most important day of my life.
“I always imagined myself walking on that graduation stage.”
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