Students, management urge to find peaceful solution
BRAAMFONTEIN – Students and leaders come together to discuss peaceful solutions to student protests.
Students, along with political and church leaders, recently converged at the University of Johannesburg for a peace accord meeting to find a peaceful solution to the ongoing #FeesMustFall protests.
The meeting on 19 October, which was scheduled to take place at the Holy Trinity Church, was relocated to the Solomon (Senate) Mahlangu House to accommodate more students.
The meeting saw students and leaders speak on various issues around the call for free education, including the increasing militarisation of the campus and the curfew recently imposed on campus.
One of the speakers at the meeting, former Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela, expressed her support for the students’ cause.
“I come here to listen to you as a mother, a Wits alumni and as an ordinary citizen,” Madonsela said.
She went on to thank students for the reminder that while some were enjoying life, others were left behind – just like struggle heroes fought for freedom in the past.
Read: Wits black academics decry varsity militarisation
Adding to this was Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, acting secretary general for the South African Council of Churches, who reaffirmed the council’s support for the students’ movement. “As a council, we believe that education is an inalienable right for everyone and that is why we have engaged with both students and management on the issue,” Mpumlwana said.
“We also call for a peaceful space to resolve these issues and we need leaders to come together to achieve this.”
Read: Hundreds gather at Wits University Great Hall for mass meeting
The meeting also saw students air their grievances, with one irate student criticising the heavy police presence on campus, likening it to apartheid-era tactics. “We are concerned about how the university is being run and all the police on our campus intimidating and harassing us,” the student said to rousing applause.
“It’s also hypocritical of Adam Habib [Wits vice-chancellor] to talk of supporting ‘fallists’ [#FeesMustFall supporters], but turn around and jail Mcebo,” criticised another student.
Meanwhile, another student added how the heavy presence of police officers was moving towards racial profiling, as she felt, in her opinion, that black students were intimidated and searched while white students were left in peace. “I’m also questioning the notion of the peace accord meeting; whose peace is this when our demands are being ignored by management,” the student asked.
Also present at the peace accord meeting was Father Graham Pugin, also from the Holy Trinity Church, as well as Max Sisulu and Zwelinzima Vavi.
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