Johannesburg - University of Witwatersrand student leaders have agreed on a 24-hour suspension of the protest that has seen some of them suspended for failing to appear for a disciplinary hearing on Monday.
One of those suspended was Student Representative Council (SRC) president Aphiwe Mnyamana, whose suspension drew the ire of the South African Students Congress (Sasco) as well as the University of Zimbabwe SRC.
During a media briefing yesterday, the Wits University SRC said it was willing to pause a protest over fees and accommodation for 24 hours, on condition that the institution removed private security guards and police officers from the campus and lifted the suspension of six students, including its president.
SRC deputy president Kamogelo Mabe told journalists that the council would only meet the university’s management to negotiate when its demands were met.
The strike, which is now in its second week, is in demand for the university to provide accommodation to those who are homeless or cannot afford the residence fees, as well as for students with R150 000 in historical debt to be allowed to register for the current academic calendar.
Mabe warned that this gesture was not permanent and was only put in place to allow both parties to negotiate.
“So, in order for us to get into an engagement, we are ceasing fire for a certain amount of time, and also we can only cease fire upon them meeting our demands. So, at the current moment, we are going to table that we will cease fire only for a period of 24 hours,” Mabe told journalists.
He said the ceasefire would only work once some of the conditions for negotiation were met, which included the removal of private security and SAPS members from campus as well as the lifting of the suspensions of six students, including Mnyamana.
The SRC president was suspended on Monday on allegations of serious misconduct and failing to appear at a suspension hearing.
Another demand is that the university stop further suspensions of protesting students.
Once these demands were met, Mabe said, the SRC would meet Wits management to negotiate. If the university failed to adhere to the new demands, Mabe said the students were willing to go back “to the ground”.
“If we feel the need to continue (protesting), the ground is always ready. As we have always said, students are not demoralised,” he said.
However, Wits University spokesperson Shirona Patel said the university was being persecuted for decisions made higher up and not of their making.
“We all agree that we should have access to quality, free education, decolonised education. The question is who is going to pay for it? The missing middle? No one caters for them.”
She added that the university would not budge on the suspension if students continued their violence.
The protests began at the
University of Cape Town, followed by the University of Johannesburg and Wits. At the root of the problem is the exclusion of those who cannot register for the new academic year because they owe the university money, or couldn’t secure accommodation at residences because they didn’t have the required deposit.
Two weeks ago, University of Pretoria students held protests over the capped National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) accommodation allowance, staging sleep-in protests at departments responsible for residency as they asked for funds to allow them all to be housed in residences near enough to campuses, and in safety.
As of Tuesday, academic activities had to be suspended and staff were turned away at Tshwane University of Technology’s Pretoria West campus after students embarked on protests. They are unhappy with a number of issues they claimed were being ignored by the university management.
Higher Education Deputy Minister Buti Manamela also weighed in on the student protests at Wits and Tshwane University of Technology. He said his department was concerned about the violent nature of the protests.
“We are concerned about the violent nature of some of these protests, such as the protest at Wits which, in part, manifested (in) isolated acts of intimidation of staff, students, members of the public and destruction of property,” Manamela said.
“There have been incidents at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the Tshwane University of Technology. We are in touch with leaders in those institutions to try and get a deeper understanding of what the nature of the problem is.
“(We will) to try to assist in ensuring that we resolve those issues in instances where alternative platforms don’t exist in order for us to deal with those protests.”
He appealed once more to the management of universities to continue engaging with student leaders. | Additional reporting by GOITSEMANG MATLHABE
The Star