Johannesburg - The protest action by students at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) enters another week after their demands have not been met by the institutions.
The Student Representative Council (SRC) addressed and updated the students in a mass meeting on Sunday night following their extensive engagements with the university's management.
Frustrated students protesting over financial exclusion, lack of accommodation, and outstanding fees took their demands to the university's vice-chancellor, Zeblon Vilakazi's Parktown house on Sunday night.
The students demonstrated outside Vilakazi’s Parktown home in a bid to put pressure on the university to meet its demands over accommodation issues they have been raising since the start of their protest last Tuesday.
Responding to the SRC, Wits said, in a written statement, “Given resource constraints, the University is not able to allow all students across all programmes, whether full-time, part-time or occasional, to register without them meeting the re-registration requirements.”
It said, on a case-by-case basis, it would consider the requests for registration assistance from unregistered students with a PCD (Proceed with no conditions attached) outcome only.
"This will further only be applicable to students seeking to register for the programme that they were registered in for the 2022 academic year, and not for registration towards new programmes, part-time and/or occasional studies," Wits said.
The institution added that it would endeavour to seek external donor funds for this once-off concession to assist academically excellent students and would allow the late registration of students who fall into this cohort of students only.
On absorbing the R86 million accommodation budget shortfall demand, Wits said: "The University agrees to establish a working group with the SRC for the purpose of working on a response to the accommodation funding crisis created as a result of the NSFAS cap.
"This working group will also jointly engage NSFAS and all other relevant parties on seeking solutions to this crisis, as Wits University is not able to absorb this shortfall because it would compromise the financial sustainability of the institution."
Another demand by the SRC was that NSFAS-funded students in off-campus accommodation should not be required to pay a deposit, should not pay top-ups, and all accredited buildings must make provision for NSFAS-funded students at the NSFAS rates.
"The Wits private accommodation accreditation policy requires private providers to provide NSFAS students with accommodation at the NSFAS rate of R45 000 per annum. Therefore, no deposits are required to access this accommodation. The University agrees to work with the SRC on reviewing the Accreditation Policy," Wits said in its statement.
Wits’ SRC made it clear that they would not rest until all their demands were met.
Current Affairs