Protesting Fort Hare students block road
The SRC at the University of Fort Hare barricaded the R63 connecting Alice and Fort Beaufort with their desks and placards on Monday, in a bid to draw attention to the prolonged strike at the university.
The students were agitating for urgent intervention to halt the weeks-long strike that has forced the university to shelve a portion of its exams.
SRC president Xolani Jaji said that while it respected the process that has been unfolding between management and labour unions such as the National Health Education and Allied Workers Union, the impasse was affecting students.
“This morning we went to the R63 to get attention to access our basic right which is education,” Jaji said.
“We have been patient with the process, we have respected the plight of the workers to demand an increase, we have also respected the communication that was given by the university, but we are losing out on time,” he said.
The union is demanding an increase of 8% and a notch progression of 1%, while the university’s management says it can offer only 7.5%.
University spokesperson Khotso Moabi said the institution understood the frustration of the students and was working hard to get back to full operations.
“They want to go to class and lectures but we are disappointed that they chose to demonstrate that in the manner in which they did,” Moabi said.
“The interference [with] traffic is not only dangerous but unlawful, the closure of the main road is unacceptable as far as we are concerned.”
In June, when the strike started, the students were forced to wait for the second semester to complete their exams, after lecturers and other staff members supported the work stoppage.
The second semester was meant to have started on July 16 but has yet to start.
DA Students Organisation constituency leader Homelo Bucwa said the students were back on campus to finish their exams as promised by the university. –
‘The interference [with] traffic is unlawful’
Khotso Moabi
FORT HARE UNIVERSITY SPOKESPERSON