CPUT activists call for assembly after bail
‘Management, council and students can address issues collectively’
CAPE Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) student activists are calling for a mass assembly with the university management, following the release on bail of the five students who allegedly torched a university shuttle bus on October 23.
The five were released on R2 000 bail under strict conditions, which include being barred from attending any student activities including mass meetings, and contacting any students at the university.
Student activist Neo Mongale said they were only able to raise the funds for their bail through the assistance of a group that supported the student movement.
“The unrest started started when the management communicated about financial exclusion, which goes against our resolutions agreed to last year.
“Therefore we call for a mass assembly so management, council and students can address our issues collectively,” he said.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley provided an extract from a statement by vice-chancellor Chris Nhlapo: “It is management’s view that what the students are in effect calling for is nothing more than a mass meeting, the likes of which has been twice agreed to by management in 2016.
“On both occasions the meetings ended in chaos, violence and threats on staff lives. In the current volatile climate it would be irresponsible for us to allow a mass meeting of this nature to go ahead.”
Kansley said private security would remain on campus until the university could be assured that the arson attacks had stopped and that the campus was safe for all.
Meanwhile, UCT vice-chancellor Max Price invited students and staff to a university assembly on free education at the university’s Jammie Plaza yesterday.
Price said that the assembly was called at the behest of the outgoing SRC at a council meeting last week and was a response to government’s three-year delay in making a decision on tertiary education funding.
After the assembly, Price was asked to shut down the campus for one day to enable students to march to Parliament for the release of the fees commission report.
He declined, saying students could not afford to miss their exams and a shutdown would not be in their best interest.
Protests on campus followed, with the university sport centre occupied by students, and late last night there were reports of police at the Upper Campus.
Outgoing UCT SRC chairperson, Seipati Tshabalala, said Price had the power to ease students’ concerns with an e-mail, as was done when mobilising the university to march under the banner #SaveSA last year.