Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University students who protested a week ago against the university over meal, book and tuition allowances are expected to return to class as funds reflect on their portals, the Student Representative Council (SRC) said.
The students staged a protest outside the campus gates in support of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funded students who have not received their allowances since the beginning of the 2023 academic year.
Speaking to IOL, the SRC president, Thato Masekoa, said that on Sunday, the university lifted the suspension of the SRC President General, Secretary General and Chairperson of Oral Health students, including the one student, with immediate effect.
Standing in solidarity with the students, unions, the South African Union of Students (SAUS), Nehawu-SMU branch and SMU-Academic and Professional Staff Association (APSA) condemned the delay in student allowances and the university’s decision to suspend the SRC leadership.
“The university, akin to the culture of student victimisation that many universities have embodied in the face of dissent by student leaders, is once again victimising students and student leaders.
“We also witnessed with disgust the brutalisation and brute violence that has been meted out against students of SMU by thuggish private security personnel hired by the university,” SAUS said.
Nehawu demanded that the university create an academically conducive environment by urgently addressing matters around book and meal allowances for students who are funded by the scheme.
“The struggle of the students is the struggle of the workers, and the struggle of the workers is the struggle of the students,” it said.
APSA condemned the “childish and irresponsible” acts by the SMU management of militarising campus by calling for private security and SAPS for students who are exercising their rights to learn by peaceful protest.
It further called on the progressive forces, parents, working class and the rest of the poor of the poorest to support and be in solidarity with poor students fighting for their right to learn.
Meanwhile, Masekoa said the university would receive a report from the SRC SG about students who were physically assaulted.
“We also encourage students to get the J88 forms for them to be assisted,” he added.
kamogelo.moichela@inl.co.za
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