One dead in varsity protest
Wave of protests forces tertiary institutions to shut their doors
A student was shot dead in Durban yesterday as major South African universities faced a fresh wave of protests that have led to some of the tertiary institutions shutting down. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele confirmed the incident, which took place at the Durban University of Technology’s (DUT’s) Steve Biko campus in Durban central.
“Yes, I can confirm that a student has been killed near the Standard Bank admin block called Open House Student Governing Department,” said Mbhele. Details around the death of the student were still sketchy, but Sowetan understands there were clashes between the protesting students and security guards. Yesterday, classes were also disrupted at University of the Witwatersrand as students staged a sit-in at Solomon Mahlangu House, an admin block at the main campus, demanding to speak to the vice-chancellor. The students also demanded that all returning students be given accommodation and returning students with historic debt of R100, 000 or less be allowed to register.
The Wits protests came the same day as the University of KwaZulu-Natal shut down its campuses following protests that erupted at its three Durban campuses on Monday. Students rejected the institution’s offer that those who owe the varsity must at least pay 50% of the debt. Students also claim that foreign students were required to pay 100% of the academic fees upfront.
DUT and the Mangosuthu University of Technology in Durban also suspended lectures this week following disruptive protests at their campuses.
The demands by the Wits students could not be met “if the university is to remain financially sustainable”, the university said yesterday.
There were clashes between students and security guards who were apparently trying to maintain order at the campus. In its response to Sowetan, Wits listed a number of initiatives it undertook to help needy students, including processing more than R100m in student financial aid, scholarships and bursaries annually. The university said it had only 6 200 beds, which have already been allocated to students and it was working with external service providers for additional student accommodation. Responding to the ongoing protests, the DA Student Organisation (Daso) criticised the disruption of classes.
“Today is indeed most unfortunate. It speaks to the uncaring and misguided leadership of the SRC (student representative council) members of these organisations, in that they failed to exercise their oversight duty effectively last year after securing the majority of the votes to sit on SRCs,” said MP Sandy Kaylan, speaking on behalf of Daso.
Kaylan said the student organisations should instead have addressed their concerns in the previous academic year, yet “they chose to sit on their hands and now plan to disrupt” the current academic year.
Problems at the KZN universities were apparently as a result of delayed responses to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) “poor housing applications”, payment of historical fees and lack of assistance for postgraduate students. According to a memorandum given to UKZN management on Monday, protesting students were demanding that those who received free education last year, after announcement by former president Jacob Zuma, should not be required to repay 50% of their historical debt. They urged the university to “put pressure on the sponsor and not on the students, since it’s not their fault that the sponsor delayed payments”. NSFAS spokesperson Kagisho Mamabolo said the student funding scheme did not have a policy on accommodation. “NSFAS pays accommodation fees to the institution, which in turn pays for the students. Wits will be able to respond on their policy on accommodation and compliance with DHET [the department of higher education and training] policy on student accommodation,” Mamabolo said. “All NSFAS returning students with debt have been unblocked... DHET has also provided acknowledgement of debt for students who want to register immediately, with debt.
“Simply put, NSFAS qualifying students should not be prevented from registering in 2019 due to outstanding debt. DHET Communique 1 of 2019 to all vicechancellors qualifies this fact.” DHET and other student leaders had not responded to Sowetan’s requests for comment by the time of going to print.