Mcebo Dlamini says Wits security guards ‘must go and write matric’

Former University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) SRC president Mcebo Dlamini was highly criticised on social media after the circulation of a video of him making “condescending” comments about the institution’s security guards.

Students at the institution embarked on a hunger strike on Tuesday demanding that classes and the registration process be halted until their financial grievances were addressed.

University management told students that those with outstanding fees would not be allowed to register for this academic year.

The statement that was released on Monday said: “In shutting down the campus, Wits University management responded by deploying private security on campus to violate students and continue to victimise and intimidate students. We have also been informed that they are planning on deploying the police force and judging from past experiences with the police being on campuses, the level of violence is one that can never be justified.”

Following an altercation between security personnel and the students on Tuesday, Dlamini addressed the students and told them to respect Jerome September, the dean of students, because their lives depended on him.

“Wits means white, this is a white space dominated by black bodies, always trying to colonise you again. We are not your people. Here is the dean of student affairs, all your lives depend on this man,” he said.

Dlamini further said he had asked the dean to chase security personnel out.

“If these people want to come to Wits they must go and write matric,” said Dlamini, who was criticised for assuming the security guards had no matric.

Twitter user @kmosebetsi wrote: “It is upsetting because some of the students’ parents do the same jobs. To ridicule them like that is unacceptable under any circumstance,” while @DjukaMatauri said: “Next they’ll be telling us they are fighting for security guards and cleaners but they just see them as uneducated help.”

These were some of the comments:

Mcebo criticised for ‘belittling’ remarks about security guards

(Compiled by Vhahangwele Nemakonde)

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