#FeesMustFall: Local students talk
Residents says she supports the cause but not how it is executed.
The #FeesMustFall student protest campaign has not just grabbed the imagination of the nation but the world, as Australian and British students will be protesting in solidarity today with our students.
The movement was born after 10 per cent university fee hikes for 2016 were announced at the University of the Witwatersrand last week. Wits students’ defiance led to other universities following suit. Since last week Wednesday media and social media has been dominated by the campaign.
The Record spoke to Witpoortjie resident and third year medicine student at Wits, Anest Myburgh about her views and experiences of the protests so far.
According to Myburgh students occupied the main campus building last Wednesday but by Thursday the protesters demanded the medical campus also to be shut down. Students were ordered to go home but were locked in by the protestors and could only leave when they were escorted out by the police. The same day all campuses were shut down by the university management.
“It is not easy to formulate an opinion. I definitely support the cause. Fees are riduculously high. Currently it cost me about R60 000 a year and a 10 per cent increase would mean at least R6 000 a year extra,” said Myburgh.
“Unfortunately when rubber bullets fly, stun grenades are shot and cars are overturn you do become scared. In that regard I do not agree with the way it is at times executed,” she said.
Exams are also starting for Myburgh and her fellow students next Monday and she said they have missied important lectures and the presentations of their projects had to be indefinitely postponed.
Chantelle Fourie just finished her internship at the Caxton Journalism Cadet School and has landed her first journalism job at Krugersdorp News.
“I could not afford to go to university and therefore support the cause wholeheartedly. If I could I would also join the protest because it seems to be the only way to get government’s attention. The fact that the protests are multiracial shows how far we have come. Students’ demands are spot on. Government has money to waste on so many other things, but not to invest in the future of our country,” said Fourie.
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