Campus strike gives students a bitter taste of SA’S paradoxes
DM168
This week, my son started classes at the University of Pretoria after a fun week of orientation. It’s been a joy to see him come into his own. He loves university life – the lectures, the lecturers, sport, the diversity of students and subjects, making new friends. He jokingly calls himself a Tukkie and says it’s “Tuks of Niks” (Tuks or nothing).
Sadly, on Day 2, his enthusiasm was tempered by a touch of South African reality. When I drove him to the main entrance of the Hatfield campus there were police cars and protesting university workers belonging to the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu). No students were allowed to enter.
I had to drive my son around Hatfield as thousands of eager students flooded the surrounding streets, locked outside the campus at almost every entrance. Niks access. The doors of learning were shut.
Some daredevils risked injury by climbing over fences and walls while other students were stranded outside. No university official came to address them. No one came to open the gates. It was chaos and confusion. I offered to drive my son home but he was so determined not to miss classes that he found an access point.
As I watched the older workers in their red Nehawu T-shirts toyi-toying outside the gates on one side and the fresh young faces yearning to learn on the other side, it brought home the invidious position we find ourselves in as a country.
The workers have every right to a legal strike and their demand for an aboveinflation increase of 7% sounds pretty reasonable considering inflation in January was 5.3% and food inflation was 7.2%. What they and the university management do not have is the right to lock gates and stop students from learning.
The workers deny closing the gates, but whoever locked them infringed on the students’ right to education.
Rather than opening the gates and ensuring that the workers protested peacefully, the university informed all students on Wednesday that they should stay at home and take online classes. Those without internet access could brave the library if they managed to get in. Once again, the less-advantaged students suffer. What a start to the first week.
On Thursday, News24 reported that the university finally toughened up and served striking employees with a notice informing them it had gone to court to seek an order restricting disruptions.
Most of us can empathise with the Nehawu workers because, without inflation-linked increases, our salaries are worth less every year whereas food prices, petrol, clothing and medical aid increase way above inflation.
I can also understand how tough it must be for the university to meet the strikers’ demands for a 13th cheque, a once-off bonus, five days’ leave encashment and long-service cash awards, when every single public entity faces budget cuts.
As university spokesperson Rikus Delport explained to News24, the varsity has had a 1.7% cut in government funding, tuition fee increases are capped, it has student debt of R650-million and it had to spend more than R80-million to run generators because of load shedding.
The 7.5% pay rise the government gave to state employees has to come from somewhere. Budgets are being slashed, hitting essential services such as universities and public health. In our lead story this week, journalist Tamsin Metelerkamp spoke to senior doctors who are at the coalface of cost containment in public health.
I struggle to imagine how we can build a functional National Health Insurance when the health system is so overstretched.
I was pleased to see Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana put his foot down this week to stop the bleeding of billions into the bottomless pit of SOES by not giving them another cent of bailouts, as our finance writer Ray Mahlaka reports. Let’s hope Godongwana’s tough love spreads to every tier of government.
At last we have a date to determine our fate – 29 May, folks. Let’s use our X to ensure we keep the looters and pie-in-thesky promisers of paradise at bay and get some visionary, competent, level-headed, caring and compassionate people to steer our country out of the morass. Meanwhile, we each have to play a small part in making South Africa a better place for all.
I will be on study leave for the next two weeks. My trusted colleague Sukasha Singh will be at the helm of the newspaper while I’m away, so please send your letters to her at sukasha@dailymaverick.co.za