The Wits Liberated Zone’s solidarity effort continues

by | Jul 26, 2024 | News

The Wits Liberated Zone has continued their fight for peace with a day of fun, because joy is the biggest act of resistance. 

On Thursday, July 25, the WLZ invited students to the Lawns to enjoy games and a picnic in another effort at solidarity with Palestine.  Food, blankets, board games, and Palestinian flags littered the Library Lawns as members of the Wits Liberated Zone (WLZ) hosted a picnic for Palestine. 

Students spent their lunchbreak sharing foods in the colours of the Palestine flag, like olives and pizzas, playing board games, and making art as a peaceful demonstration of their support for the people of Palestine. 

Games and art supplies at the WLZ picnic. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane
Coco, a student attending the WLZ picnic at the Library lawns. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane

“In situations where there is a lot of censorship from the oppressing party, art becomes a form of expressing that liberation in a way that it doesn’t get censored. Art perseveres through censorship, and it gives people a reason to connect. When you form a community, art is just a mode of connection,” a member of the WLZ, Zehra Zaidi, stated. 

The picnic was a gathering of likeminded people who have continued to support the cause for Palestinian liberation and have hoped to see the university make efforts to distance itself from Zionism.  

“Movements like the Civil Rights Movement (in the United States) were endorsed by university students, and it led to such important change, so if we choose to be neutral then we are not fulfilling our right as a university,” said Adil Durrani, a WLZ member.  

This marks the first activity by the WLZ after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) deemed Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories unlawful and considered Israel’s laws on occupied territories as tantamount to apartheid on July 19.  

“Before, people were unsure about what is happening, and we didn’t have a formal statement from a very high authority like the ICJ. If you are not going to believe that then you are just being ignorant,” said  Durrani. 

The Wits Liberated Zone many efforts to fight for Palestine, including the encampment on the Library Lawns in May 2024. Members of the Zone intend to continue their efforts until their demands are met by the university. “In the greater scheme of things, we are building up to seeing the university take action to show vocal support for Palestinians and show real condemnation for the Israeli apartheid state,” Zaidi stated. 

The students of this movement continue to place pressure on the university, with the hope that these efforts will soon result in more direct shows of solidarity with Palestine. 

FEATURED IMAGE: A group of pro-Palestine students gathered for a picnic at the Wits Library Lawns. Photo: Kamogelo Kungwane

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Private security set to remain on campus indefinitely

by | Feb 26, 2019 | Featured 1

By Naledi Mashishi

Private security personnel are set to remain at Wits University indefinitely as the institution says it has no immediate plans to remove them.

The guards, who have been outsourced from Johannesburg-based security company, Diligence Services Group, have been on Wits campuses since the first week of February after fees-related protest action started on February 4, and have remained at the university for almost two weeks after the protests ended on February 7.

“The University assesses the national and local higher education context and deploys security accordingly. As the need for the security personnel diminishes, so will their presence on campus be reduced,” said Buhle Zuma, Wits University spokesperson.

Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) deputy president Nkateko Muloiwa says that the SRC’s stance is that the university must remove all private security that is on campus.
“We don’t want private security to stay on campus and we have relayed that to management,” Muloiwa told Wits Vuvuzela.

He says that by continuing to keep private security on campus, “it is quite clear that [the university management] somehow want to provoke students and they’ve embarked on wasteful expenditure.”
According to their website, Diligence Services Group has provided private security to Wits University during student protests over the last three years.

In a testimonial published on their website, Wits director of protection services Mokgawa Kobe wrote that, “The company was very instrumental in assisting the university to manage the protest actions since January 2016.”

Students ended their protest action after Wits management agreed to allow some students with historical debt to register.

FEATURED IMAGE:  Private security personnel block protesters.
Photo: Phumi Ramalepe

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