Latest NMMU protest ‘political point-scoring’

AS STUDENTS at NMMU embarked on a second day of protest to demand free tertiary education, the Student Representative Council (SRC) said the protest was nothing but political point-scoring by South African Students Congress (Sasco) members ahead of next month’s SRC elections.

Sasco, however, rejected the claim, saying the protests were all about slashing fees.

According to SRC president Nicholas Nyathi, Sasco was using the #FeesMustFall platform to actively campaign for the elections, expected to take place between September 14 and 28.

Yesterday morning more than 300 students, mostly affiliated to Sasco, blocked all access points leading to NMMU’s north and south campuses.

Nyathi said by doing this, Sasco had ignored a call by the South African Union of Students (Saus) to wait for feedback from the government regarding possible fee increases for next year, which is expected next week.

“Sasco is campaigning. They are shutting down the university even though students want to write their tests this week.

“It is a situation where 150 people are holding the entire institution to ransom. Everyone is concerned because we want to write our tests and graduate. This small group of students are delaying our dreams,” he said.

Nyathi said on Tuesday Saus had released a statement instructing universities that there would be no shutdown.

Despite this, a Walter Sisulu University protest proceeded.

“I asked the president at WSU why they were marching and he said it was due to institutional matters like residency and lecturers,” he said.

“On Tuesday NMMU called a meeting with Sasco to ask why they were shutting down the university and they said it was due to the fees issue.

“Sasco was told that Saus had called off the shutdown but they said they would continue anyway.”

Sasco representative and student activist Siviwe Ngaba, who led the protests and shutdown at NMMU over the past two days, rubbished the allegations.

“The people who are saying that are sick in their minds. There is no such thing,” he said.

“That shows stupidity – we can’t downplay the #FeesMustFall cause with SRC elections.”

Asked if Sasco knew Saus had called off the shutdown, Ngaba said Saus governed SRCs and had nothing to do with the mandate of Sasco.

“The call would be to the SRCs – what we are doing has nothing to do with Saus,” Ngaba said.

“It [the shutdown] was a call by provincial Sasco. Saus can never tell Sasco what to do.”

Saus president Avela Mjajubana said he had heard about ongoing protests at NMMU but would need to verify details with Nyathi before commenting on the matter.

Meanwhile, the university said it was aware of a voice note circulated among students yesterday in which an unidentified male speaker is heard saying anyone entering the NMMU south campus would be killed, with faint clapping in the background.

NMMU spokeswoman Zandile Mbabela said the university was investigating the source and veracity of the message.

She said academics would advise students on missed tests. —