Wits to run poll on reopening
Wits ‘extremely’ concerned at the ‘unfolding and growing’ crisis. ‘HUNDREDS’ OF E-MAILS ASK TO STAY OPEN
The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) will later this week have a poll to gauge the views of staff and students on the resumption of the academic programme on October 3, if the appropriate security measures are in place.
The university said it has received “hundreds” of e-mails calling for the academic programme to resume after the shut down of all university activities amid violent protests on campus last week.
“All responses will remain anonymous. We are requesting the Independent Electoral Commission to oversee this process and verify the results independently,” it said.
If the majority of students and staff support the reopening, the university would call on government and police to protect university property and safeguard the lives of all students and staff.
Wits added that it was “extremely” concerned about the “unfolding and growing” crisis in the higher education sector and is calling for an urgent meeting between vice-chancellors, the minister of higher education and training, the minister of justice and the minister of police to engage on the matter.
The #FeesMustFall protest escalated in Gauteng yesterday afternoon as hundreds of Wits students marched from the main campus in Braamfontein to Wits Medical School in Parktown in a bid to shut it down. They also planned to march to Wits ViceChancellor Adam Habib’s Parktown home.
Wits Student Representative Council secretary-general Fasiha Hassan said the purpose of the march to the medical campus was to make management shut it down and ensure students there joined the protest for free education and against fee hikes in 2017.
At the meeting, plans were heard to take government to task in the Constitutional Court by filing an urgent application to force government to deliver free education. The aim, according to a student addressing the crowd, was to achieve this by the end of the week.
The students are also aggrieved about how police have reacted to the protests. “The past three or four days the police have been trying to dehumanise us,” one student leader said.
University of Johannesburg students held a mass meeting amid plans for students at the two institutions to join forces this week. –