Johannesburg - Mediators will meet Wits University management and student leaders on Sunday in a last-ditch effort to save the university from complete closure for the 2016 academic year after Friday’s general assembly fiasco.
On Saturday, the university’s council met to ponder its future as student leaders of the #FeesMustFall chapter said they wanted the university “to work with us in putting political pressure on the government by closing down”.
Friday’s assembly with students, parents, academics and civil society was meant to build a consensus within the university community to be able to resume the academic programme on Monday.
In another development, the ANC parliamentary caucus was holding its lekgotla this weekend with the #FeesMustFall issue expected to feature.
And there were signs of growing frustration within the government about the impasse, with the nature of violence at some of the institutions becoming a concern.
In a strongly worded opinion piece submitted to this newspaper, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko launched a stinging attack on some of the #FeesMustFall movement leaders, who he said “have become loose cannons and made it their business to make criminality the credo of their supposedly liberatory narrative”.
“For them, it would seem, it is not just the fees that must fall, but all else that fundamentally makes South Africa vibrant and functional, despite the socio-economic impediments that continue to strangle the economy.”
Nhleko said “although the pace of transformation may call for acceleration, petrol bombs and thuggery pose a danger of making the # FeesMustFall campaign a frivolous and shameful activity”.
He said the impasse has become a top priority for the ANC and hoped “there will be an even greater sense of direction and formidable leadership in the quest to address the varied pressing issues facing our nation” when the governing party emerges from its deliberations at the weekend.
Wits University management said all attempts by former Black Student Society, SRC leaders, to obtain consensus with protesting students over fee increases was unsuccessful.
One of the mediators, Bishop Jo Seoka, said a last-ditch effort to get the students and management to work together was under way this weekend with a view that Monday may be D-Day for a real final decision to save this academic year.
“Monday is the D-Day for the students and the university to have the real final decision, acting together to implement the programme that will save the year from collapsing.”
He said mediators feared a complete closure of the university and have committed to try to save it. “If that does not happen the year will have been wasted and next year students will be expected to pay more fees to re register for the same degrees that they have been studying for throughout this year.
But incoming Wits SRC president Kefentse Mkhari said the outcome of the university council meeting has nothing to do with students going back to class on Monday.
“It is the government that must make a commitment to free education. That is the only thing we want,” he said.
Mkhari said they would be holding a mass meeting to decide a way forward on Sunday.
He reiterated that the students were unequivocal in stating that they were not willing to return to classes until they received thegovernment commitment to free education.
On Friday, after the failed attempt to hold a general assembly, Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib said it had been postponed until consensus was reached and the conditions for such an assembly were met.
“There was also a risk that the safety and security of those attending the assembly could not be guaranteed,” Habib said.
Former Wits SRC president Mcebo Dlamini, however, accused Habib of acting in bad faith following the postponement.
“The vice-chancellor acted in bad faith and even negotiated in bad faith. We wanted him to commit‚ and he’s not being honest when he says we wanted one demand which is free education,” Dlamini said.
The Higher Education Parents Dialogue, supported by the SA Council of Churches (SACC) made an urgent call for the current stand-off between university management, students and government to be classified as a national emergency.
“We recognise that our greatest investment as a nation is in ensuring quality education for our children, and it is in this spirit that we are working to identify solutions to the current challenges,” said Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, SACC general secretary.
Several attempts to reach Habib on the outcome of the council meeting last night were unsuccessful.
The Sunday Independent