To mark mental health awareness month, the student support office is visiting residences and student accommodations to educate students about how to manage stress.
Forty students turned up for the Wits SRC student support office’s first event to kick off mental health awareness month, on April 25, at Apex Studios Accommodation in Braamfontein.
The mental health drive is a student wellbeing initiative that will see SRC student support officer, Lisa Sibaca and a team of various panellists going to different student accommodations and residences to discuss mental health.
At Apex Studios, each of the five panellists tackled a different topic relating to mental health in an interactive discussion that saw students asking questions and engaging in conversation with the panellists.
First was SRC student support member, Thato Lebitso, who addressed a topic that most students in the audience felt strongly about as it received a lot of interaction and feedback from the audience – “burnout syndrome”. He described it as “unsuccessfully managed chronic stress”.
Lebitso explained that, although all students deal with stress, not all students deal with burnout syndrome. The key factor which distinguishes the two is the way stress is managed. He said stress was a natural part of life and of being a student as there were always deadlines to meet or exams and tests to plan for.
However, when students do not manage their stress in a healthy way and plan their activities and obligations in detail, this leads to chronic stress which could possibly lead to burnout, Lebitso said. He identified six steps that students could implement to manage stress and avoid burnout.
Thato Lebitso’s six steps to manage stress and to avoid burnout. Infographic: Terri-Ann Brouwers
This resonated with one of the students in attendance, Lebogang Sekhitlu (23) who said, “Once you can identify [burnout], I think you can limit the harm it does.”
The drive will continue till Tuesday, May 16, and staff from the Counselling and Careers Development Unit (CCDU) would take part, so that students could be aware of the resources available to them.
“It is very easy to blame a student for not working or performing academically, but they’re suffering in terms of their mental health, so, we’re here to offer solutions,” said Sibaca. Omphile Seqhee (19), Apex Studios’ well-being and outreach student life intern, told Wits Vuvuzela that she was more than happy to collaborate with the SRC student support office by bringing the drive to their accommodation. She was happy that students got tips on how to deal with academic stress as that is what causes students to have the most mental health struggles.
FEATURED IMAGE: SRC student support officer, Lisa Sibaca, and her team of panellists engage with the audience at a mental health drive event at Apex Studio Accommodation, Braamfontein. Photo: Terri-Ann Brouwers
The financial aid scheme missed its own deadline, March 31, to resolve all appeals.
As many as 450 Wits students remain unclear about the status of their NSFAS funding appeals.
This was revealed after an April 17 meeting that the SRC had called to deal with an increasing number of students who are being evicted by private residences because it is not clear if they will be funded, according to treasurer general, Kabelo Phungwayo.
The meeting, which took place in the SRC boardroom at the Wits Matrix, was attended by more than 80 students who spilled into the hallway for lack of space.
A second-year bachelor of health sciences student, Neo*, told Wits Vuvuzela that she was facing eviction from her accommodation. She said she was funded by NSFAS for a year-and-a-half, until she was academically excluded.
This year she had travelled from the Eastern Cape to attend a Wits Readmission Committee hearing on January 17, and could not afford to go back home. Her mother, who is the sole wage earner in the family, and is supporting five children, then took on the burden of paying for her accommodation, hoping that NSFAS would take over.
“My mother had to take out loans [for my accommodation]. She cannot always send money, so sometimes I eat once a day, and I still have to cross-night and study,” said Neo, who, like many students, does not have a book allowance or stipend to get essentials.
Phungwayo said that during the fee protests in February, the SRC had met with NSFAS and brought up the issue of students who were sleeping in libraries and toilets, because of the financial uncertainty created by the slow pace with which NSFAS was communicating the statuses of their appeals. NSFAS had then promised to resolve all appeals by the end of March and established an appeals tribunal to fast-track the processing of the 70 000 appeals they had received nationally for 2023. This did not happen, according to Phungwayo.
He added that since 2020, students have had to use a centralised portal to lodge appeals, and the SRC recommends that appeals be relocated to individual universities, to avoid this kind of breakdown in progress.
Samora Mbomba, the regional coordinator of the South African Students Congress who has been working with the SRC on the matter, says that the problem is that once on the NSFAS portal, “students were asked to upload certain documents, but when they go to upload those documents, the portal says no documents required.”
She says she has recently been in contact with the National Assembly chairperson of the portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, a former SRC president, who had requested the names and identity numbers of the affected students. Mbomba says she believes that things will move a bit quicker now.
The SRC announced on its Twitter page that any students who had missed the April 17 meeting were welcome to come to the office every day between 3pm and 7pm, so they could be added to the list.
Wits Vuvuzela contacted the Wits NSfas office on April 18, and was told to write an email to the office of the Wits CFO. Executive secretary to the CFO, Marelize van Niekerk then forwarded the email to the financial aid and scholarships office manager, Charlene Timmerman, who did not respond. Wits Vuvuzela followed up with further emails to Timmerman on April 20 and 24 but has yet to receive a response.
*Name changed to protect the identity of the student
FEATURED IMAGE: Wits students who have yet to receive outcomes of NSfas their funding appeals, met in the SRC boardroom on April 17. Photo: Morongoa Masebe
A brief reprieve at Wits University, as protesting students momentarily call off protest action.
The deputy president of the Wits student representative council (SRC), Kamogelo Mabe declared a 24-hour ceasefire on March 8, as the group prepares to finally meet with Vice Chancellor, Zeblon Vilakazi.
The ceasefire is conditional, Mabe called for all ‘bouncers’ (security officers) to be removed from campuses and for no further suspensions to be enacted by the university.
“This is a stance that we are taking as student leaders. We are not intimidated, we are not pressured into any position, but we are simply saying that we are, for the last time, revisiting this conversation,” said Mabe at a press briefing.
Several student protesters including the Wits SRC president, Aphiwe Mnyamana remain suspended from the university. The suspensions bar the students from entering the university premises including residences, making them effectively homeless and unable to continue with their studies.
Speaking to eNCA, the university’s spokesperson Shirona Patel welcomed the ceasefire and said that they were willing to meet the SRC’s demands to facilitate dialogue. Patel added that the university has already acceded to the SRC’s demand to remove the police presence in and around the university and will reduce the number of private security guards as the situation deescalates.
“I’ve been here before the pandemic, and I’ve seen like protests like in 2019 and I’m a bit unfazed by it because it’s something that like we almost expect now so it’s a bit disheartening to me that like we’re still having these conversations even though I’ve been here since 2019 this is 2023 and it’s still the same conversation,” said Owethu Tema, a third-year architecture student
Similar protests are taking place at the Tshwane University of Technology, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Cape Town, among others. The same issues persist at these institutions, students simply cannot afford both the high cost of education and the living expenses that come with being a student.
FEATURED IMAGE: Left to right: Wits SRC members Karabo Matloga, deputy president Kamogelo Mabe and secretary general Tshiamo Chuma at the press briefing on March 8, 2023. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
While some are attending online classes, protesting students still have their proverbial boots on the ground as the #WitsShutdown drags on.
Protesting students were joined by the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union affiliated workers picketing in front of the heavily guarded Wits Great Hall on Monday, March 6.
The Great Hall piazza has been stage to increased tensions over the last few days, which saw projectiles including bricks and stones, flung from either side of the picket line. Most recently students trying to gain entry to the admin block were shoved and pepper sprayed by security officers.
Increased security in recent days, has seen the police called in to quell tensions. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
SRC’s attempt to ‘fetch’ VC
A group of students protested outside the Wits VC, Zeblon Vilakazi’s house in Parktown at around 22:00 on March 6, 2023, to pressure the university to meet outstanding demands. The protesters accused the vice chancellor of being “arrogant” and not taking their plight seriously after he refused to meet them, he was on campus at the time and agreed to meet with the SRC at a time yet to be confirmed.
In a statement, the university said: “Following our engagement with the SRC, and further correspondence, the SRC has rejected the concessions presented today. Instead… about 200 students, led by the SRC, chose to march to the Vice-Chancellor’s home, and some threatened to burn it down.” The SRC denied the threat.
“We will not put our arms down until our students are registered,” said Kabelo Phungwayo, the Wits SRC Treasurer General who said that he was left bruised after security guards assaulted him while protesting on Monday morning.
Students kneel on the Great Hall piazza on March 6, 2023. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
Deadlock after concessions
Wits has made some concessions including the waiving the R10 000 first fee payment for students applying for accommodation, and the provision of free data for all students from April 1, 2023. Speaking at a mass meeting on Sunday evening SRC president, Aphiwe Mnyamana said that they “will remain resolute” until all their demands are met.
Remaining demands include the allocation of additional beds for homeless students, scrapping of the R45 000 National Student Financial Aid Scheme accommodation cap, allowing indebted students to graduate and the lifting of suspensions.
The university says many of these demands are simply unaffordable, the NSFAS shortfall for instance requires some R86 million.
In a statement issued over the weekend, the minister of higher education, science and technology, Blade Nzimande said urgent meetings over the cap would take place in the coming days. Along with this, “price collusion by landlords”, would be investigated.
Karabo Matloga, the Wits SRC compliance officer, told Wits Vuvuzela that, “We had a meeting on Saturday looked promising however, the letter that we received was simply a spit in our faces because it was not addressing the core issues we have.”
The university said it is committed to working with the SRC subject to availability of resources and the university’s long-term sustainability.
FEATURED IMAGE: Student holding up a placard which reads, “Wits is not for good…”. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
The #WitsShutdown protests are ongoing as key demands remain unmet.
There has been much back and forth between the Wits SRC and the university’s Senior Management Team during the #WitsShutdown protests. We put some of the key issues side by side.
FEATURED IMAGE: A protesting student form the Wits EFF Student Command sings into a loudhailer. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
The Wits SRC organised a clean-up campaign around the streets of Johannesburg to clear students’ historic debt.
Members of Wits University’s student representative council (SRC) hung up their white blazers on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 in a symbolic effort to sweep away outstanding student debt. The clean-up drive is one of many activities planned to reach the R20-million target set by the SRC to assist returning students who have been unable to register for the academic year due to financial constraints.
A Witsie waves two plastic bags. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
A closeup photo of a hand picking up rubbish. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
A woman picks up rubbish on Jozi streets
A volunteer helps clear a heap of rubbish infront of the Hillbrow Health Centre. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
Wits students removing a rubbish heap outside Hillbrow Health Centre. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
A Wits security guard hands out cleaning gloves to the students
A police car flashing its lights with the crowd blurred in the background. Photo: Mpho Hlakudi
As Wits centenary celebrations wrapped up, the SRC reunion showed that council members still hold dear the principles of justice from their student activism days.
Week-long discussions resulted in concessions being made by the university, among them to provide R20 million, and Wits SRC insistence that all students offered readmission be allowed to register(more…)
The pandemic had a devastating effect on the morale of members of clubs and societies in 2020, but 2021 provides new opportunities to remain relevant. (more…)
Since her announcement as the Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg, Helen Zille has dominated national headlines. In this bonus episode of We Should Be Writing podcast, hosts Lulah Mapiye and Bonolo Mokonoto dissect a media meet-and-greet with the mayoral hopeful. From her extensive political résumé to her controversial public utterance, we examine why the Democratic Alliance has chosen Hellen Zille as their candidate for the 2027 local mayoral elections. Additionally, […]
