Parly committee steps in to assist UCT

THE PARLIAMENTARY committee for higher education has stepped in to assist an embattled UCT.

Yesterday, the committee conducted a visit to the university and held talks with the student representative council (SRC) along with university management. During the meeting, the committee wasted no time grilling the SRC on its position during the protest.

“By no means will we be able to provide all the answers sitting here today. We see this as an opportunity for the committee to provide continuous dialogue and when there is dialogue there has to be willing participants,” chairperson of the committee Cornelia September said.

She added that she shares resonance with the SRC regarding their issues. “Of course there are complex issues; students find themselves in a place with its own history. They cannot ignore these sorts of things. When we talk about transformation we talk about decolonisation,” September said. She also used the platform to ask the newly-elected SRC how they engage and whether they had reached the stage where they had chosen violence rather than speaking.

“Do we continue with the status quo? We have a different view, we come from different walks of life, but we all have one mandate: every student comes to university to better themselves and to make something of themselves,” SRC president Karabo Khakhau said.

The university is currently on the verge of a collapse after disruptions and student protests escalated last week. As a result of the disruptions, several protesting UCT students were arrested during clashes with the police last Thursday. A month prior to the disruptions students handed over a list of several demands. Among these demands included a 0% fee increase.

They also demanded the immediate release of the report of the fees commission and an emergency institutional commission of inquiry into all the deaths of students over the past two to five years relating to suicide.

Despite this, vice-chancellor Max Price said the university had always been open in engaging with the SRC. “We have always involved the SRC in various discussions, including with issues we have engaged with them.”

Price also painted a grim picture of what the financial consequences would be should students not complete the academic year. “We’re talking about losing millions.”