GALLERY: Wits protest winds down

It was business as usual at Wits University with most students attending classes and no disruptions happening throughout the day on 29 October. This after 16 days of protest that saw the university halt its academic programme when students protested against the university’s 10.5 per cent fees increase citing that the increase was steep and unaffordable. Students congregated every day inside Senate House that had been dubbed Solomon Mahlangu House for the duration of the protest and took their protest outside the campus by marching to the education and medical campus in Parktown.

21 October saw students descend on Parliament and disrupt the mid-term budget speech by Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene. Police used stun grenades to disperse the protesting students and 29 students were arrested and charged with trespassing and participating in an illegal protest.

Traffic came to a standstill when the protest took another turn when Wits and UJ students marched together to Luthuli House to hand over a memorandum on 22 October. Secretary General of the ANC Gwede Mantashe accepted the memorandum on behalf of the ruling party.

Students then turned their attention to the Union Buildings and took buses to join their Pretoria counterparts in their march on 23 October. Chaos reigned at the Union Buildings when President Jacob Zuma failed to make an appearance to address students. Rocks were thrown at police and portable plastic toilets were burned as students vented their anger and frustrations at the President’s no show. Two vehicles were torched and many students were

tear-gassed by police. Students were injured in scores and a TUT student suffered an asthma attack. President Zuma then announced a zero per cent fees increase which was relayed through the media.

26 October saw the protest take a turn, concentrating on the outsourcing that affected the workers at various institutions of higher learning. The workers complained that the outsourced company did not pay them enough, adding that the R2 500 they received was nowhere near enough to satisfy the monthly needs the workers had.

Students interrupted a meeting that Vice Chancellor Professor Adam Habib was chairing with Wits Council members and demanded that the meeting be moved to Senate House. Prof Habib spent most of the day listening to complaints that the workers and students had, noting them down as they spoke.

The university struggled to retain order on its campus and delayed its academic programme on a daily basis until 28 October when workers and students clashed with the private security that the university had hired to maintain order at its campus after students set a bookshop, two vehicles and tyres at the Wits main campus alight. Students and the private security suffered injuries and one student was throttled by the security personnel.

Senior Communications officer for Wits university Shirona Patel said that the exam timetable would be published on 30 October. She said that the university had accepted a memorandum from the workers and that it was agreed that a commission would be set up to look into the matter of outsourcing. The commission, she said, would include the workers and would last about six weeks.

“The university has contracts in place and would need to consult with its legal teams on the way forward in terms of outsourcing,” she said, adding that the university had thousands of workers and forked out R200 million to pay for its thousands of workers each year.