Pretoria - An uneasy calm has fallen over two of the province’s biggest institutions of higher learning, Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and Wits University, as management teams scramble to restore calm and order.
The students have embarked on protests in recent days, disrupting academic activities at both institutions.
As of Tuesday, academic activities had to be suspended and staff turned away at TUT’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.
Student Representative Council (SRC) member Musa Maringa said student formations had submitted numerous memorandums to university management since the beginning of the year, alerting them to a number of issues.
Maringa said students couldn’t be expected to write tests while registrations were still ongoing, nor without meal allowances being allocated as yet.
“How do they expect a hungry student to focus in class? How do you expect a student who doesn't even have accommodation to go write a test?”
To make matters worse, Maringa said, the residences which the university provided were below par, with some rooms without beds or basins and only a bathroom to use for brushing their teeth, washing dishes, using the toilet, and bathing – all in one space.
“Even the hygiene of students is not being taken seriously. We have submitted memorandums throughout but nothing is being attended to. All we’ve asked for is feedback and exact dates when the issues will be attended to.
“The only thing being done is that the management is busy threatening student leaders who are merely fighting for students. We came here for academics but how do we focus when our issues are not being attended to?”
University spokesperson Phaphama Tshisikhawe said the management was in discussions with the SRC after protests held on Tuesday and yesterday at some of the institution’s Pretoria campuses.
“Current discussions are aimed at the speedy resumption of normal academic operations at the Pretoria campuses. We have our final meeting today with student leaders to fully unpack the grievances and measures the university has in place,” Tshisikhawe said yesterday.
Dustbins and rubbish were strewn across roads across the university, while protesting students were gathered inside awaiting the outcome of discussions.
The protests began at UCT, followed by the University of Johannesburg and Wits University. 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 capped National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) accommodation fees, sleeping at the doors of departments responsible for residency as they asked for funds to allow them to be housed in residences near to campuses.
Yesterday the Wits SRC said it was willing to pause the protest over fees and accommodation for 24 hours, on condition the university removed private security guards and police from the campus and lifted the suspension of six students, including its president, Aphiwe Mnyamana.
Mnyamana was suspended following student protests, with his deputy, Kamogelo Mabe, stating that the council would only meet the management to negotiate when its demands were met.
This after authorities demanded that students stop the protest to pave the way for a meeting with the vice-chancellor.
Higher Education, Science and Technology Deputy Minister Buti Manamela said: “We are concerned about the violent nature of some of these protests, such as the protest at Wits which in part manifested isolated acts of intimidation of staff, students, members of the public and destruction of property.
“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,” Manamela said.
He appealed once more to the management of universities to continue engaging with student leaders.
Pretoria News