Wits University students started protesting against the university’s proposal to increase fees for next year by 10.5 per cent on 14 October.
Students allegedly closed all the university’s entrances. Those who were already inside were not allowed to leave. The protest led the university to suspend all the lectures for the day.
Meanwhile, Wits chief financial officer Linda Jarvis issued the statement on the university’s website indicating why the fee increases are necessary.
Some of the key reasons included 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 the 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.
The university is yet to comment on the protest. To get more updates from the scene please follow gaahele Mokgoro on twitter @Treaka.
Details: Wits SRC 011 717 9206.
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