GALLERY: UJ exams set to continue despite protest

Protesters from the University of Johannesburg refuse to budge as exams officially kicked off at the university on 6 November.

University staff began protesting on 2 November against outsourcing and they were joined by a handful of students.

The students demanded that the university waive upfront registration fees, despite UJ being the first university to come out and pledge to in-source its workers.

“At this university we pride ourselves with having a tradition of engaging and opening up dialogue and are always willing to talk to relevant stakeholders when problems arise,” Vice Chancellor Professor Irhon Rensburg stated from headquarters at the Kingsway Campus.

Prof Rensburg admitted that outsourcing of workers was a mistake and many universities across the country have already appointed a task team that include union members, who are representing the workers.

“Our contracts with the outsourced companies are ending very soon and we intend to outsource the staff at the earliest opportunity but it won’t be tomorrow as demanded by the protesters,” Rensburg said.

He pointed out that the protesting workers and students were being disruptive and already the unions had briefed the workers on the intention of the university to in-source them.

Professor Rensburg added that the library which housed around 5 000 students had to be evacuated a number of times due to threats from the protesters.

“Some of our students do not have an alternative venue to study from and the library is the only place for them to study and this protest is threatening to derail their studies,” he said.

Professor Rensburg confirmed that there were five students who had already been suspended for their parts in the protest, including the current SRC President Khutso Rammutla and claimed that they were responsible for various acts of violence around the Kingsway campuses.

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Suspended SRC President from UJ Khutso Rammutla said that he was aware of the letters of suspension but added that the university could not suspend him as he was elected by the students.

He added that the UJ SRC had waited up until now to protest as they were busy with elections during the #FeesMustFall campaign that saw President Jacob Zuma announce a zero per cent fees increase across institutions of higher learning at the Union Buildings.

“We had already started with our campaigns and money had already been spent on the campaigns and we could not partake i the protest hence we are protesting now,” he said.

Earlier on in the week Rammutla encouraged the workers to protest until the university came down and addressed them and that they would ensure that their voices wouldbe heard.

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However Mpho Letlape, the deputy Vice Chancellor of Strategic services at UJ, said that thus far the university’s management had already addressed three groups claiming to represent the workers and defended the university’s decision to suspend the five students as they had incited violence and they had been warned not to engage with acts of violence.

“We were very disappointed when Rammutla failed to heed our call to be non-violent as he told us in a meeting we had with him that if we did not adhere to the demands of the protesters violence would reign on campus,” Letlape said.

It was expected that 45 000 students would sit for their year end exams and the Vice Chancellor said that the university was committed to keeping their students, staff and visitors safe during this time and that extra security measures had been put in place and added that they were using video surveillance to monitor all activities pertaining to the protest.

“We will watch the videos in order to determine if the security personnel have not been too heavy handed with the protesters but also to determine what role the students played in the violence that has erupted on the campus,” Rensburg said.

Since the protest had begun at UJ’s Kingway campus in Auckland park a guard house and several tyres had been burnt and several violent clashes have broken out between protesters, police and UJ security guards.

Wits University medical student have assisted with tending to injured students and for Wits SRC president Shaeera Kalla and Wits EEf Chairperson Vuyani Pambo paid the UJ protesters a visit and offered support. Donations of water, cool drink and sandwiches have been made to the protesters.

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