Pretoria – Two of the biggest institutions of higher learning in the city are experiencing unrest yet again, just over a month into the 2017 academic year.
After various protests in 2016, including a complete shutdown as students demanded free education and supported the #OutsourcingMustFall movement, hopes that 2017 would be better have been dashed.
A dispute over an alleged lack of accommodation has rocked the University of Pretoria since Monday.
And on Wednesday, chaos and mayhem reigned supreme at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Pretoria West campus, also over insufficient accommodation.
TUT students set fire to university property and barred others from entering or leaving the university grounds. “We cannot provide accommodation for everyone,” TUT deputy vice-chancellor Professor Stanley Mukhola said.
Students and staff were caught off guard as they arrived at the campus to find fires blazing at the gate of the university.
Mukhola said they were not notified of any student issues warranting protest action.
They were only told after the fires had been started that management would be furnished with a memorandum of issues students wanted addressed immediately.
“They took everyone by surprise because even the students who arrived to attend classes and write their exams were uncertain as what the problem was."
“I think it was the work of a few individuals with their own agenda who decided to interrupt academic activities. They succeeded this morning unfortunately,” he said.
Deputy chairperson of the South African Students Congress at TUT Sello Mangwane said they raised the problems they were facing several times over the years.
“Even though TUT has the highest student intake after Unisa, it only has space for 22% of the student population. That is simply not enough. Management needs to be reminded that shelter is a basic need and having to go without res is detrimental to our academic performance,” he said.
Mangwane said they also wanted the service providers at the cafeteria – providing substandard and unhealthy food to students daily – to be removed immediately.
The upgrading of the on-campus clinic and a call to intervene regarding racist lecturers acting as gatekeepers to black students having access to specific courses were additional demands student leaders cited.
Mukhola said it appeared to be more of a cut and paste job as some issues had been dealt with previously.
Accommodation couldn’t be provided for all students despite it being their wish for the betterment of studies, he said.
“We just don’t have the money to build residences across the system. We are finishing off residences in Soshanguve and Ga-Rankuwa.”
At the University of Pretoria, the #UPResCrisis hashtag filled the Twitter sphere on Monday and Tuesday, with black students claiming they were kicked out in the middle of the night by security personnel.
Numerous tweets chastised UP for allegedly giving preference to white students and leaving their black counterparts to contend with expensive private accommodation.
Picture: Twitter
However, Tuks spokesperson Rikus Delport said: “It is not true. All students were offered accommodation last night and they refused. They then went into the toilet and pretended to be sleeping there while taking pictures which they posted on social media.”
Henrico Barnard, chairperson of the Temporary Student Committee at UP, also said the #UPResCrisis had been staged.
Barnard said although there might be a need to revisit the university’s policy to ascertain if it was in line with the needs of the majority of students, they had worked hard to find alternative accommodation for students since residences were full in November 2016.
“From last year we’ve been working on this problem and managed to acquire 420 private residences for students accredited by the university.
“Students who allegedly had nowhere to go were in fact offered accommodation, but they declined our offer,” he said.
Chairperson of the EFF Student Command at the university Kabelo Mahlobogwane maintained that accommodation was a major problem.
“Students who are vocal on this issue are being moved back on the residence waiting list. Even our secretary who was number one on the waiting list was moved back.”
The South African National Civic Organisation meanwhile called for security at higher education institutions to be beefed up.
National spokesperson Jabu Mahlangu urged students to marginalise and ostracise elements that were determined to destabilise higher education as well as the future of “tomorrow’s leaders”.