UPDATE: Gallery and Video – Students protest Wits 2016 fees

Students from all walks of life united under the banner #WitsMustFall as they displayed their dissatisfaction with Wits University’s proposed 10.5 per cent fees increase. The students were not alone as the university’s domestic workers joined them in their protest.

They chanted, sang and marched around the university briefly assembling inside Senate House where members of Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) addressed the students, calling for Vice Chancellor Professor Adam Habib to resign.

All entrances to the university were blocked by students who did not allow anyone to enter or exit. A few motorists became angry and attempted to break through the blockade that the students had erected, leading to a verbal altercation with a man who said he had to take his mother home.

The cars queued at the gates on both sides until eventually they gave up and waited for the protest to end. A few of the students spoke under condition of anonymity saying that already the university’s fees were steep and now they would have to fork out more money to continue studying.

“Where must we find this extra 10.5 per cent the university wants?” asked one student. Another pointed out that the National Student Fund (NSFAS) had increased the amount of funding to universities and at the same time the university raised its fees.

One student said that the university was supposed to be leading them but instead they were “derailing” them. He added that already NSFAS was under immense pressure and could not take more students.

Shirona Patel, communications manager at Wits University, said that the SRC was expected to hand over a memorandum detailing their grievances to the university, but has not done so yet. She added that the university’s council had met and discussed the increment of fees the week before, and decided that the increase was unavoidable as the university also had costs to cover. “The university is always willing to sit and talk with students about these matters,” she concluded.

Wits chief financial officer Linda Jarvis issued a statement on the university’s website indicating why the fee increases are necessary. Some of the key reasons included were that the rand-dollar exchange rate has fallen by about 22 per cent and has resulted in an increase in the amount of money that the university was paying for all library books, journals, electronic resources research equipment that were procured in dollars and euros.

According to a statement by the SRC president, Shaeera Kalla, the Wits proposed fee was simply unjustifiable. “One must then ask, how much longer is this going to go on for? How long is Wits University going to continue to exclude poor students,” she asked.

She explained that the university management dismissed all arguments made by the SRC and have thus decided to increase overall students fees by 10.5 per cent, upfront fees by 6 per cent, residence fees by 9.4 per cent and the international students fees by 10.7 per cent. “We are tired of the blatant lack of transparency and financial accountability of the part of the management. Enough is enough,” she concluded.

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GALLERY and VIDEO: Students protest Wits fee rise