The South African Union of Students (SAUS) have lambasted Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande accusing him of turning a blind eye to critical student issues.
On Tuesday, the students union issued a statement where they aired their frustration with Nzimande and his alleged leadership failure.
“The union is frustrated by the state of perpetual paralysis in the Department of Higher Education, under the supposed leadership of Minister Blade Nzimande. The reality is that, for the most part, the department is on autopilot, with institutions of higher learning pulling in divergent directions, without coordination,” SAUS said.
This week, at least three universities in the country shut down campuses due to threats and violent protests.
On Wednesday, the University of Cape Town was blocked by frustrated students after the institution’s management failed to ensure that all students, despite historical debt, were registered before classes resume.
UCT SRC acting president Siya Plaatjie said the first semester has already started.
"In such a fragile time in our university, the leadership of the students finds itself between a rock and a hard place. We are baffled by the vice-chancellor's desk, one that painted our efforts to fight for those the system excludes, as regressive," Plaatjie said.
The SRC proposed that there should be a halt to the academic year until all students were registered and the council had resolved fee blocks. However, that was not done on Monday, as per the alleged agreement between management and the students.
Meanwhile, in KwaZulu-Natal, tension is brewing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the Durban University of Technology.
The University of KwaZulu-Natal suspended classes for a week following violent protests at three campuses on Monday morning. A number of students blocked the entrances of the Westville, Howard and Pietermaritzburg campuses.
According to the student leadership, many students are not yet registered. They said that only 30% of applicants had been successfully registered, meaning 70% were still not registered.
Furthermore, Durban University of Technology (DUT) shut down three Durban campuses on Tuesday following violent protests.
“Physical access to the Steve Biko campus, M.L Sultan campus and the Ritson campus in Durban will be suspended with immediate effect. These three campuses will be evacuated and closed until further notice,” said DUT in a statement.
DUT’s SRC held a protested over their grievances regarding the institution’s registration processes and the lack of student accommodation.
According to the chairperson of the EFF’s student command, Nkululeko Mzobe, the institution’s online registration processes are not efficient.
“The online registration process has failed dismally, like last year. We are expecting classes to commence next Monday, but we haven’t even reached 50% registration,” said Mzobe.
Saus said the are number of issues that Nzimande and his team were overlooking. The union said it has been engaging with the department with regards to various issues that are facing students in the sector, such as defunding of PGCEs, N+2 rule, lack of funding for post-graduates and other critical matters.
“To date, the blunt purported leadership of Minister Blade and collective still hasn’t been able to address these challenges, except for establishing an assembly of endless task teams who some of them have been investigating since 2019/20 on the direction and decisions the minister should take,” said the union.
Another issue the union had was the delay in finalising the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) guidelines. So as to give students clarity on what they can expect when it comes to funding commitments and the scheme’s expectations of students.
“The academic year has commenced, with registration drawing to a close in some institutions, and still the department doesn’t see it befitting to release the guidelines and give institutions and SRCs clarity and certainty as it pertains to NSFAS funding for the year.”
The union also alleges that they have been in attempts to engage with student organisations on the issue of Mandatory Vaccination policies established by some institutions of higher learning.
“Since last year October, we began engaging with various stakeholders including the Department as it pertains to the Mandatory Vaccination policy in some institutions of higher learning, subsequent to that we carried on to plead with the department to engage with these universities to find an amicable solution that would not impede on the rights of all students, whether they have, within their constitutional prerogative, chosen to vaccinate or not vaccinate.”
Department of Higher Education spokesperson, when pressed for a comment, told IOL that Nzimande would be issuing a detailed statement in response to this on Friday.