Classes, as well as graduation ceremonies, have been disrupted at the University of South Africa (Unisa) in Pretoria on Wednesday following a protest by the support staff.
According to a statement released by the institution on Tuesday evening, the graduation ceremony that was scheduled for 10am on Tuesday was disrupted by members of the trade union, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
“University of South Africa (Unisa) would like to extend its sincerest apologies to the graduates and guests who were inconvenienced by the disruption of the graduation ceremony by protesting members of Nehawu scheduled for this morning,” said Unisa spokesperson, Victor Dlamini.
Dlamini added that other graduation ceremonies would be postponed until further notice.
“In the meantime, the graduation ceremonies scheduled for this afternoon at 18:00 as well as tomorrow at 10:00 and 18:00 respectively have been postponed until further notice. The university will also communicate more information about the outstanding graduation ceremonies in due course,” Dlamini said.
Support staff have accused university management of reneging on a salary adjustment agreement that it entered into with workers in September last year.
When speaking to a television news broadcaster, Nehawu’s Thembani Valoyi said: “In February, they did not pay us the money from September because they had promised to pay us the money from September to January. They only paid us the money and adjusted our salaries for February to a new salary scale with a different percentile. Others get 3%, the other 7% only for us to wake up yesterday and find (that) they have reversed that salary increase back to the 2021 salaries.”
University management is currently in conversation with Nehawu about the issues in dispute that led to the disruption, as well as the rules of engagement when employees exercise their right to protest.