Staff back #Fees protest
Support staff at Rhodes University have thrown their weight behind #FeesMustFall protesters in calling for an academic shutdown at the Grahamstown campus.
While local leaders of the National Education Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu), together with #FeesMustFall protesters were yesterday locked in a meeting with university management, staff joined students outside the Day Kaif below the main library from 9.30am to around 2pm.
Their main demand was for an academic shutdown. Both student and union negotiatiors said this was a precondition for staff who are Nehawu members – mostly support staff – to return to work.
A protester who addressed the gathering below the library said, “If they want you as our parents to return to work, they must allow an academic shutdown and during the shutdown period they will sit down with us and we will discuss our demands.
“We want to sit down again with management because they say they are still going to look at our demands. If they don’t want the shutdown then you, our parents, are not going back to work and that’s it.”
University spokesperson Catherine Deiner said she was unable to comment on the matter at the time of going to print because management was still in a meeting and she would only be able to answer questions afterwards. Nehawu leaders were likewise in negotiations and unavailable for comment.
University employees told Grocott’s Mail that Nehawu leaders had told them they would tell them if they should go to work today (Friday) or not.
Rhodes University acknowledged the effects that events on campus were having on the town, hours before five students who had been arrested during disruptions on Monday 10 October, were released on warning. Workers’ union Nehawu subsequently spoke out strongly against threats to employee safety as a result of the #RUFeesMustFall protests, as well as conflict between the protesters and the police.
The five students appeared in the magistrate’s court in Grahamstown on Tuesday 11 October.
Magistrate Ntsoki Moni ordered them to return to court on 30 November. Students filled the courtroom in support of the three male and two female students who on Monday took part in actions on the Rhodes University campus as part of the #FeesMustFall protests.
A statement issued by the University’s Communications and Advancement Division said the students had been arrested after a group of them disrupted classes on Monday morning. Spokesperson Catherine Deiner said although Rhodes University had experienced disruptions that morning, the academic programme had continued.
According to the statement, protesting students entered residences and vandalised property.
“Fire alarms were set off and, in some cases, ripped from walls,” Deiner said.
“Protesters then proceeded to enter lecture venues and strew rubbish across the floors disrupting lectures as they did so. In ablution facilities, drains were blocked and taps opened in order to flood large areas. In some cases, staff were harassed and intimidated.”
The University condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the disrespect shown to support staff, in particular, cleaning staff, who had to clean up as a result of protest action.
“It also has enormous consequences for the wider Grahamstown community because of the relationship of the University to the economic well-being of the town and its citizens,” said the University.
The Monday disruptions followed a breakdown of negotiations between the students and management. The students demanded that academic programmes be suspended for the week starting Monday 10 October. The University said all agreements reached during the intense negotiations over a period of three days had fallen away because of this demand.
SAPS spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer confirmed Monday’s events.
She said that as early as 8am on Monday morning, students at Rhodes University had disrupted classes, flooded premises and emptied rubbish bins.
Meanwhile, in a statement released later this week, Ne- hawu said while they supported the call for free higher education, they felt this struggle should be conducted “in a disciplined, peaceful and democratic manner”.
Nehawu felt the university community should protect students from excessive force by the police; however at the same time they condemned any attacks that made the university unsafe to work in, whether police action “or (a)small group of violent students”.
The union declared their support for negotiations and dialogue among constituencies to resolve the crisis.