MULTIMEDIA: UJ students face court after emotional weekend

Students are currently gathering outside the Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court to support the University of Johannesburg workers and students who were arrested on 6 November.

The 150 students and 13 cleaners from UJ who were arrested for contravening a court order obtained by the university, were all released. All arrested students were suspended. On 7 November, from the morning to later in the afternoon, students and families converged outside Brixton Police Station, waiting for arrested students to be released.

Watch students and families comfort each other as arrested students and workers are released:

Watch as students block the Brixton Police Station singing protest songs:

“The university has signed an agreement with the workers and have excluded the students from that agreement,” said UJ SRC secretary general Mmangaliso Mkhonta. He added that this agreement is going to agitate the protesters because the students are supporting the workers and they should not be left out of any agreement.

UJ media relations co-ordinator Herman Esterhuizen explained that on 8 November, UJ management, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu) and other representatives of outsourced workers at UJ met to discuss the university’s intention to end all outstanding arrangements as soon as possible.

Watch UJ SRC president Khutos Rammutla talk about the events that took place at the Brixton Police Station:

They all agreed that outsourced cleaning, protection and gardening services that are presently outsourced through external service providers will be in-sourced according to an agreed in-sourcing plan, and that workers currently performing these services are to be transferred through an agreement process to UJ.

They also agreed on a number of aspects such as minimum salaries and working conditions for affected workers, how the in-sourcing plan will be funded, that the outsourced service workers will return to work on 10 November – subject to workers not participating in any protest activity disrupting the normal operations of the University, and that all parties take collective leadership to achieve this, just to name a few.

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