by Zimasa Mpemnyama | Mar 1, 2016 | News
The Walter Sisulu University in East London has also been engaging in the nationwide university strikes for the insourcing of service staff and the lack of accommodation and funding for students.
Classes at the Walter Sisulu University (WSU), in East London in the Eastern Cape, have not begun since the beginning of the academic year due to ongoing student and worker protests.
While the students are complaining of very limited accommodation and lack of NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) funding, the service staff are calling for an end to outsourcing and the exploitative working environment they say characterises the system.
“Classes were due to begin on the 8th of February and that was the only day we attended classes.”
According to one of the student protesters and 2nd year Journalism student, Tebogo Gantsa, all of the campuses are currently shut down and “we have decided that we will embark on a three day stay away to give management an opportunity so that we can see if they’re going to implement the resolutions that they have taken with the SRC,” he said.
“Classes were due to begin on the 8th of February and that was the only day we attended classes. On that day there was a communique that said that the University will be shut down,” Gantsa says.
Gantsa told Wits Vuvuzela that only one concession had been made since the beginning of the strike action by students, “on the 17th of February … we said that for them [management] to resolve some issues the campus needs to be open but only for non-academic activities. So all the administration people were allowed to go back to work,” he said.
Some of the grievances from the students include the lack of accommodation, even for “deserving students who qualify” for it, the University’s unwillingness to help students find alternative private accommodation, and the exclusion from residence of students who, although they qualify for NSFAS, did not get funding because NSFAS has “insufficient funds”.
SERVICE STAFF DEMAND AN END TO OUTSOURCING
Echoing the voices of other student protesters across university campuses in the country, Gantsa insisted that students were never violent during protests and that they were rather intimidated and attacked by heavy handed campus security and the police. He also urged people to problematize the term ‘violence’. “Students here have been psychologically impacted by the presence of private security on our campuses. The security literally follows us everywhere,” he said.
“Close to 100 workers … signed a memorandum … demanding a minimum salary of R10 000 per month.”
Working in parallel with the student movement is the worker’s movement which includes service workers employed by security, cleaning, catering and landscaping companies, all fighting to be insourced and to get employment benefits from the University. Close to 100 workers who get paid between R2400 and R3800 a month, signed a memorandum on January 28 that they sent to the University and their respective companies demanding a minimum salary of R10 000 per month and a change to insourcing.
The representative of the workers and an Art History lecturer at the university, Churchill Madikida says that none of the companies or the university have responded to the memorandum, instead, workers have been threatened with dismissal and others have been sent to disciplinary hearings.
One disciplinary hearing notice letter, which Wits Vuvuzela is in the possession of, cites the reasons for the hearings as “inciting other employees to commit an act or acts that are detrimental to the company; Intimidation of serious nature in that you force fellow employees to sign a petition” and “leaving and/or abandoning your post without authorization and/or a valid reason.”
According to Madikida, some of the employees have been denied their preferred representation at these hearings, “some of them cannot speak English properly meaning they won’t be able to represent themselves”, which puts them at a disadvantage.
The WSU was established in 2005 through a merger of the University of Transkei, Border Technikon and the Eastern Cape Technikon.
While they wait for some of the responses to their memorandums to come through, Gantsa went on to say that the struggles in historically black universities were not given as much media attention as those in other, historically white and elite institutions. In an article he wrote in support of the outsourced workers he says, “We must guard vigilantly against this unbundling and narrowing of our otherwise intertwined struggles. What needs to happen, as matter of urgency, is the creation of a link between both the students and workers struggles.”
by Tanisha Heiberg | Feb 26, 2016 | Featured 1
R16. 3 billion has been allocated to higher education according to the budget speech by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan. (more…)
by Masego Panyane | Feb 19, 2016 | News
On Wednesday this past week, the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research kicked off its year with a conversation regarding the role female student journalists played in the protest. The talk was titled “Inter sectional writing in times of protest: Conversations with young woman journalists”
(more…)
by Tanisha Heiberg | Feb 13, 2016 | News
![South African President Jacob Zuma at the Sports for Peace Gala 2010 in Johannesburg. By South_African_President_Zuma.TIF: Sportsforpeace derivative work: Rosentod (South_African_President_Zuma.TIF) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://witsvuvuzela.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/South_African_President_Zuma-600x400.jpg)
South African President Jacob Zuma at the Sports for Peace Gala 2010 in Johannesburg. By South_African_President_Zuma.TIF: Sportsforpeace derivative work: Rosentod (South_African_President_Zuma.TIF) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
“Government has responded to the financial shortfall arising from the zero per cent university fee increase, as agreed in meeting with students and vice-chancellors last year,” said Zuma during the 2016 SONA. Zuma postponed discussing the details and rather referred to the budget speech later this month. “The minister of finance will provide the details of education shortfall funding in the budget speech,” said Zuma.
In a statement by Witwatersrand University, the university expressed their surprise that the issues relating to student access and finance were not raised during the speech. “We are hopeful that these matters will be dealt with in detail in the upcoming budget speech,” according to the statement.
Prof Ruksana Osman, the dean of humanities at Wits, expressed her concern over the lack of details discussed by the president. “The issue was not addressed sufficiently because it lacked in finer details around the big questions on how the shortfall with work, for who and under what conditions,” said Osman.
She also raised concerns over the lack of acknowledgement of the far reaching consequences of the fees crisis. “The speech was measured and did not acknowledge the magnitude of the financial crisis and the socio economic impact on the country as a whole,” said Osman.
Many now look towards the budget speech on Feb 24 to tackle the issues that Zuma deferred to the recently appointed Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan.
“My expectations are not of dramatic moves at this point – perhaps a budget raided here or there to help universities meet immediate shortfalls but probably not much more than that,” said Prof Daryl Glaser the head of department of Political Studies at Wits University.
The president added that a Judicial Commission of Inquiry was appointed into higher education and urged all stakeholders to cooperate. However, some think that the government may not be able to take on the financial burden of moving towards free education after Zuma’s speech focused on the economic situation and the tough time ahead for the country.
“This enables the executive to delay action in financially straitened times, but of course it’ll be necessary to see what the commission finds,” said Glaser.
Zuma announced that fees would not increase at tertiary institutions last year. This came after university students across the country embarked on the #FeesMustFall protests, demanding a zero percent fees increase, curriculum transformation, an end to outsourcing and a commitment toward free tertiary education.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 12, 2016 | News
Kagisho Nkadimeng is one of six students who Wits University has taken to court and have an interdict against. In court papers Wits’ has called him “5th Respondent”. He is a member of the Fees Must Fall movement at Wits and a third-year Sociology and International Relations student.
How did you end up in the interdict?
We had been planning to close down the University as a continuation from last year and it took about a week of planning in January and on the 11th we closed it [Wits] down and we were interdicted.
What led to the events on January 11?
We were not that many [people] so we chose to take the main admin building, the core of Wits which is Senate House. We closed the lifts so that staff couldn’t go up. We closed some entrances but not all of them. And we were just singing around the place.
Why were you doing that?
I came here around the 6th of January because I had financial issues so I came here to clear them up. Upon the grand realisation that many things that were promised last year were not adhered to by the same management that went on national and international media signing many documents saying that they would do this, but they didn’t do anything. So what happened was that, we were like, “so what should happen if you are relegating on the positions or agreements that you were party to?” Because we kept our end of the bargain in terms of continuing the academic program, writing and passing, we still don’t have fees. Children are crying [because] it’s still the same situation as last year… So we went back to the picket line.
What do you say to the belief some people hold that the movement has now become violent, racist and has degenerated to vandalism?
Society and the world is systematically violent against black bodies. Violence is the only way that we can make people listen. I am not saying that we support violence and all those things but closing down the university and stopping its businesses that seems, it’s seen as violent by the university. I mean, the SRC for example, pre the initial strike had been negotiating with management and nobody seemed to listen. Only when we took to the picket line did council come and negotiate with us. So it’s not violence but [protest] is the only tool of power that we have in order to make them listen. In order to make them aware and be cognisant of what is going on, on the ground. I think they [management] are just being ignorant of what’s happening.
Do you think that the movement is still relevant?
The movement is more relevant than ever. The issues of academic and financial exclusions are micro issues, there are [other] broader and underlying issues. By our very nature, coming to Wits we are sort of a privileged class, even if we are a privileged poor class, so then perhaps when Fees Must Fall has achieved all they want to achieve on campus, and across all campuses nationwide then it will be time to go and hit the communities. Maybe or maybe not in the same unorthodox way of shutting things down because outside the university you are dealing with the state organ and the state is different from dealing with an entity such as Wits, but through engaging communities, concientising them and making them aware that they have to start playing an active role in the world. I don’t think we will ever get to a utopia and say all our goals are met, there are so many socio-economic issues in society. We are all social activists even though not in the same numbers as last year we go to our individual communities and try to develop them whichever way we can. There will always be someone who will be inspire by the generation of Fees Must Fall. Perhaps the [mechanism] of protest of closing down might have ended, I don’t know, but there are still people who are driven by the goals and ethos of the movement. I don’t think the movement can ever really die.
by Thembisile Dzonzi | Feb 10, 2016 | Featured 1, News, Sport
It was an interesting day on the soccer pitch on Tuesday night when a game between the Clever Boys and Kaizer Chiefs boasted an appearance by a #FEESMUSTFALL protester.
It was more than soccer obstacles in the way for Bidvest Wits on Tuesday night when during their clash with Kaizer Chiefs, a Wits student protester holding #FEESMUSTFALL banner ran across the pitch.
The student, Busisiwe Catherine Seabe, ran in the 78th minute of the game across the pitch waving the #FEESMUSTFALL banner. She was stopped by a player and stadium security and taken to the Hillbrow Police station.
“I was charged apparently with contravening an act from 2010, I’m not sure what this act is and neither are my legal representatives,” said Seabe.
Seabe was released this morning and has been back on campus, “I’m waiting to appear at the Hillbrow court at 8:30am on Friday, I am waiting to be briefed by my legal team about this,” said Seabe.
According to Seabe, she and other FMF members went to match without the intention of protesting.
“We were just watching the game funny enough and everyone brought tickets to support the team,” Seabe told Wits Vuvuzela.
Seabe said that while watching the match, she was inspired to stage an unplanned protest on the pitch.
“Bidvest is a large part of the Wits community. If Bidvest can come on campus and ask students for support then surely the students can ask them for support when we are facing issues of accommodation, fees … The soccer industry generates millions in revenue,” Seabe said.
After dodging Campus Control on the pitch, Seabe was eventually stopped by new Clever Boy S’fiso Hlanti who didn’t seem too impressed with her actions. “He actually just asked me what am I doing? What was on the banner?’,” said Seabe.
In the footage of the incident, a member of the Bidvest management team is seen approaching the apprehended Seabe and pulling the banner from her, “I was hurt in the scuff of the pulling, my pants got torn but it’s fine,” Seabe said.
She adds that even despite having exited the pitch and some fans applauding, Bidvest staff members were still unimpressed, “It was a bit violent to a certain extent even when I was off the pitch, PSL management was very upset.”
But it seems no one is as upset as her mother who believes fee protesters have already made their point, “My mom is livid! She keeps telling me I must stop, the country gets it now.”
by Zimasa Mpemnyama | Feb 5, 2016 | Featured 1, News
Wits Fees Must Fall members say they are still around and are still saying that the end goal for Fees Must Fall is free education. This week Wits management was able to extend a court interdict against some members of the movement.
Members of the student movement Wits Fees Must Fall (FMF) have vowed to continue protesting for free education even after a court interdict barring them from protesting at Wits University has been extended to April 25.
“We are a radical political movement, the interdict that is there will not scare us,” said Wits FMF member, Phethani Madzivhandila, regarding the Wits University interim court order against some Wits FMF students.
The initial interdict was granted by the South Gauteng High Court on the January 15 and it was served after some Wits FMF students were forcefully removed by heavily armed security from Solomon House (formerly known as Senate House).
The interdict prevents Wits FMF students from “unlawfully occupying Senate House or any other offices, buildings, facilities or lecture halls; disrupting the normal activities of the University including registration, classes, lectures, tutorials” or “causing damage to property,” amongst other things.
The interdict was later extended to April 25 when members of Wits FMF will have the chance to challenge it in court.
“The interdict was extended because of some legal issues … 25 April that’s the day when there is going to be a court case between Wits and Fees Must Fall,” Madzivhandila said.
Madzivhandila also said that if need be they would continue to protest and occupying building regardless of the interdict because “students are getting excluded.”
Fees must fall protests began last year in October when students around the country protested a 10% increase in higher education fees for 2016. After no increase in fees was announced by the President Jacob Zuma, some students continued protesting demanding free education.
The Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) has since launched the #Access campaign as part of its humanitarian fund which rescues financially excluded individuals.
Madzivhandila criticised the SRC’s #Access campaign to raise R10 million for the “missing middle”, saying it would not do enough to help all struggling students. He added that the point of #feesmustfall protests was to change the whole higher education system, not accommodate it. He said “the only remedy” to stop yearly financial exclusions was “free education.”
Alongside raising money to sustain the movement, Wits FMF held a recruitment drive during O-week, engaging with students about decolonisation, free education and outsourcing.
Madzivhandila said the movement was still committed to attaining free, decolonised and de-commodified education.
“Fees Must Fall hasn’t fallen, we are still around” he said.
by Staff Reporter | Feb 5, 2016 | Featured 1, News
Trevor Ngwane is an activist at the University of Johannesburg (UJ), a socialist and a member of the Democratic Left Front. Ngwane studied and has taught sociology at Wits. Wits Vuvuzela caught up with Ngwane to discuss the student movements and more.
REBEL WITH A CAUSE: Trevor Ngwane believes the student movement should seek to include other social justice causes. Photo: Wits Communications
What do you think is the way forward for the current Must Fall movements that have emerged around the country?
I think the students have done a lot to actually take forward the struggle for free education. I think that education is a basic human right and it is a key to building a better society. One of the things that they did was to unite with the struggle of the workers to end outsourcing and to end exploitation on campus. I think they should continue that way. Also they should fight against the elitism of university education. So if they want to criticize Eurocentrism they shouldn’t assume that its hierarchical nature is ok. It shouldn’t be that “we want to be black professors and join the exclusive club of 5%”, we should fight for an equal society. We should fight for an egalitarian society with less inequality. And lastly I think we should fight against racism, but in fighting against racism we should allow those white people who support our struggle to be with us and to join, and to trust that they will do and act and aspire to what we aspire to.
Do you think social media is a useful tool for activism and organising social movements?
I think social media is a useful organising tool if it is used in a good way. What I don’t agree with is when proper meetings are not called or meetings are called using social media at short notice so that only a few, even if you have a group, if you hear that, it’s like 12 noon “comrades there is a meeting at three”, so I don’t like that with social media. I don’t like when social media allows people to change positions and decisions which have been collectively taken. I also don’t like it when it is used to slander and attack individuals. But I think it is very good to spread the word, to make sure even those who are not interested get to know what is going on. It’s useful when we need to take action and we must communicate quickly. So I support social media, I think it has done a lot.
What do you think is the connection between broader worker’s struggles and FMF?
There is inequality is society, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. The children of the poor end up doing manual work in poorly paid jobs. They never go to university [and] even if they go to university they get financially excluded. But if you look carefully the working class, the poor, there are many ways in which they are financially excluded. They are excluded from eating good food because it is expensive, they are excluded from having good health care because they don’t have medical aid, and they are excluded from moving around because they don’t have money for transport. There are so many ways in which financial exclusion can be extended beyond education. So for the struggle of the students it needs to see and to join up with other financial exclusions, with other struggles, the struggle for water for everyone, for electricity, for houses – nine, ten million people live in shacks, the struggle for health care, the struggle for decent public transport, the struggle for, I can call it recreation, for culture. Poor people, working class people, they have quite limited avenues for cultural and recreational activity. That’s why many of them just end up drinking because it’s the easiest thing which is near to them. Also I don’t think the movement for students can advance very far, I’m not saying it won’t advance at all, without linking up with other struggles in general society, so I’d like to see the student organisations link up with the trade unions, with community organisations, with Left groups.
Why do you feel ‘trust’ is an integral part of struggle?
Trust and generosity. With generosity I think you cannot have solidarity unless you are prepared to give something of yourself, even when it does not immediately benefit you. Youth should be able to support pensioners fighting for a bigger pension even though it’s another 40 years before they get old. A white person should be able to sympathise and support the struggle of black people even though that white person enjoys white privilege. The employed should be able to support the struggle of the unemployed and the unemployed should be able to support the struggle of the employed. So this is generosity.
Trust, we should trust each other. You see there is too much suspicion. “You are too old to support our youthful movement”, “you are too white to support the struggle of the blacks”, “you are too UJ to know about the struggle of the Wits students”, “you are a civil engineer student you don’t know anything about sociology and we in the humanities we know more”. We have to trust that the comrade next to us who says “I am of the movement”, unless they prove otherwise, that they aspire just as us to change society in the way that we desire. I have noticed that often students don’t trust each other, we don’t trust members of SASCO, I’m not saying that sometimes the leaders don’t deserve not to be trusted, but I am just saying rank and file members, SASCO members, PYA members, if they say they also want Fees Must Fall and they are prepared to put their bodies on the line to join, lets trust them. But obviously if they do things that undermine the movement they must censure them.
And about disruptions?
I just want to say one last thing about disruption. I have heard the vice chancellor Adam Habib and also the vice chancellor Ihron Rensburg saying that it is most important that universities must continue without disruption, in a way they are saying that normal life must continue but I must remind them that under apartheid we used to say there can be no normal life in an abnormal society. You know in a society where half the workers earn less than R3000 a month, it’s not normal. So, I think that to defend normality and to fight against disruption, I don’t support it. I think that at some point everything must change and it might entail that we disrupt what is going on so that change can come.
by Staff Reporter | Jan 19, 2016 | Featured 1, News
Photo: Tendai Dube
Wits University Management and the Wits Students’ Representative Council have reached agreement on a range of issues that are summarised here:
1. Free education: The University and the SRC commit to the realisation of free education as the ultimate goal for all students who qualify academically and who cannot afford it.
2. First payment: Students who cannot afford the first fee payment prior to enrolment/registration will still be allowed to register by filling in a form via the self-service portal (https://self-service.wits.ac.za).
a. There will be no interest on the first fee payment for those who have indicated that they cannot afford the first payment.
b. The University will provide the SRC with data on the number of students who have filled in the first payment form.
c. No student will be financially excluded during the academic year because they are unable to make their first payment.
3. Insourcing Task Team: The University agreed to more frequent reporting from the Insourcing Task Team. The next communique from the Insourcing Task Team will include information on the progress on the minimum wage demand. The University agreed that it was of utmost urgency for Council to make a decision between the proposed R4 500 and R5 000.
4. Funding for workers’ children: Workers’ children who have qualified for admission to the University and to residence will receive a full package, including tuition and accommodation.
5. General Assembly: The University commits to initiating, during the first block and upon the return of all students, the processes necessary for holding a General Assembly.
6. Safety and security: In securing and providing safety and security to the University community, police should not use undue force that violates any human rights. The University and students need to find a non-violent and amicable way of resolving issues.
7. Progression status: The University agrees that students will be able to know their progression status, regardless of whether they have outstanding debt. The University also agrees to advance students being able to view their progress report/unofficial transcript throughout the year, regardless of whether they have outstanding debt.
8. Food security: Student Affairs commits to working with the SRC on addressing the issue of food insecurity on campus. There is currently a University project to address food insecurity of which the SRC is a part.
9. NSFAS appeals: Outcomes of NSFAS appeals will be given immediately after each meeting of the appeals committee.
10. FASO: The University reaffirms the commitment that there should be accountability, efficiency and consistency within the Financial Aid and Scholarships Office (FASO). FASO is already undergoing a review process.
11. English: The University agrees to engage on the matter of students with good APS scores and exceptional marks being allowed to appeal.
12. Communication with prospective students: The University commits to communicating with prospective students who may have had difficulties with registering during the two days of registration shut-down.
13. Debt management: The University commits to providing the SRC with data to substantiate the need for state intervention on debt clearance for the missing middle.
a. All students who owe the University between R1 and R1 000 as at 31 December 2015 will be allowed to register in 2016. The outstanding debt for 2015 will be rolled over to 2016. The University estimates that this concession will benefit 3 607 students this year.
b. All students who can show that they are fully funded for 2016 will be allowed to register. They will have to sign an acknowledgement of debt for fees owed in 2015.
c. The University will work with the SRC to raise funds to clear the debt of approximately 1 284 students who owe the University between R1 001 and R5 000 (as at 31 December 2015). If this effort is successful, these students will then be allowed to register in 2016.
d. The SRC and the University will approach the provincial government to cover the debt of about 1 418 students who owe the University between R5 001 and R20 000 (as at 31 December 2015). If these efforts are successful, these students will be allowed to register for the 2016 academic year.
14. Residence fees and Food Security: Residence fees have not been increased, in line with the agreement on the zero percent fee increases. However, meal costs have increased.
The University will require about 24 hours to adjust its administrative processes to accommodate this agreement and we ask all students to be patient during this period.
Please bring any concerns or issues to the attention of the Registrar via registar@wits.ac.za so that they can be addressed timeously.
We trust that these arrangements will go a long way towards enabling the majority of our students to register for 2016 without hindrance.
We thank all staff members and students for your patience during this difficult period.
Senior Executive Team
– See more at: http://www.wits.ac.za/news/latest-news/general-news/2016/feesmustfall2016/statements/management-and-src-agreement.html#sthash.quNwJG4E.dpuf
![South African President Jacob Zuma at the Sports for Peace Gala 2010 in Johannesburg. By South_African_President_Zuma.TIF: Sportsforpeace derivative work: Rosentod (South_African_President_Zuma.TIF) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://witsvuvuzela.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/South_African_President_Zuma.jpg)
