By Mpumzi Mshweshwe
There have been ongoing protests by students from the various Walter Sisulu University campuses, the university has been affected by a series of student protests in the past week with their main campus the Mthatha campus and the Komani campus being deemed the most disruptive.
WSU was forced to close the doors for students to all its campuses and residences due to aggressive student protests. According to the registrar Dr Lulamile Ntonzima, the closures are because of “significant disruptions to university operations due to student protests”
.Institutional Student Representative Council president Bangile Madikizela said one of the core issues that the students protested for was the poor living conditions they lived in at their residences. “We have newly opened campus residences and but what we have been faced with is students who go for at least two weeks with no hot water in the new residences,” Madikizela said. She would also mention how some residences had plumbing issues and students couldn’t flush the toilets.
Madikizela said as part of their curriculum, students from the Faculty of Education have to do field work at schools. “Usually, the students would be allowed to go to a school of their choice, but this year they were told that the university was going to choose for them. This became an issue because some students preferred to choose schools which were convenient for them,” she said.
Madikizela stated that students wanted schools that were closer home and where they would not suffer from language barriers and where transport costs were low as some of them were not from the Eastern Cape, but their homes were far away. So, it became an issue that the university decided for them. The issue of the eviction came at very short notice to students as they were ordered last night around 10 pm to vacate their places of residence today by 2 pm. In a statement, the EFF Students Command sent rejected the communique from the university management. Students were assured that off-campus residences had a contract with NSFAS and the students not with the university itself. The statement urged off-campus students to remain calm and to remain in their residences. “We will continue fighting for all our students and ensure that the doors to education and our fight to learn are not infringed”, he said.
One student from the Butterworth campus stated his disapproval and disappointment with how the situation was handled and expressed his and his fellow student’s desperation. “We don’t feel well about this, we slept with no issues, now when we wake up, we are told we are to leave. “Other people aren’t even from around here (Eastern Cape), they come from Kwa Zulu Natal and Limpopo, and we are dependent on NSFAS for money. “This issue also affects our parents as we have to ask for money from them. “It would have been better if we had been given maybe a week’s notice, they told us at night”, said the student.
In a statement, the ISRC said it engaged the university management regarding the evictions. They told the management that if they want to evict the students, then they must pay them their allowances for April today and that the CFO must confirm that the allowances would be paid today.
The university warned that any students found to have led or participated in the protest activities that endangered the lives of others caused damage to property, or disrupted university operations would face immediate suspension. – @NewsSa