cuts
Jim Day and Tangeni Amupadhi
WHEN Wits University Vice-Chancellor Robert Charlton waggled a placard on Jan Smuts Avenue this week, he could count among his allies students who have spent much of this week disrupting campuses across the country.
Charlton, a staunch opponent of such misbehaviour, struck the unlikely alliance to protest the belt-tightening policies of Education Minister Sibusiso Bengu and the national government’s apparent choice of fiscal rectitude over education.
The signs waved at rush-hour commuters on Wednesday morning – “Education is a right! Subsidy cuts are a blight!” – were held by Wits university administrators, professors, secretaries and librarians, standing side by side with members of the South African Students’ Congress (Sasco), whose more militant activities this week have led to police crackdowns and closures of several campuses across the country.
“We can come here and stand every day, and nothing will happen. We have to step on some toes, too,” said Xolani Malawana, an honours student in politics and a Sasco member, standing across the street from Charlton. Later in the day, Malawana marched through the streets of Johannesburg in the spunkier but still peaceful demonstration of about 5 000 Sasco supporters. That action ended at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, where Sasco Gauteng chairperson Jacob Mamabolo blared demands through a megaphone into the ear of a distinguished but discomfited JSE representative.
The demonstrations this week are part of a broader Sasco campaign to bring attention to the troubled state of tertiary education in the country. Sasco secretary general Blessing Manale says students are targeting business for its support of the so-called traditionally white universities at the expense of the traditionally black institutions; the government for its proposed cuts in university subsidies; and universities and technikons for turning away students who cannot pay fees.
Next week Sasco carries its campaign to the campuses of Afrkaans-language universities – Stellenbosch, University of the Free State, Rand Afrikaans University and University of Potchefstroom.
It is the threat of funding cuts that unites militant students with the likes of Charlton and members of the Committee of University Principals (CUP).
Opponents of the cuts warn that reducing subsidies will force institutions to cut faculty, reduce financial aid, and raise fees. And those likely to suffer the most will be the very disadvantaged students the government says it wants to help.
“If subsidy levels remain where they are now, institutions will be extremely hard pressed,” said Jos Grobbelaar, the chief executive officer of CUP. His organization has appealed to Bengu not to go through with the cuts.
Members of Sasco were linked this week to unrest at campuses in Gauteng, KwaZulu- Natal, Northern Province, North-West province and in the Free State. The Johannesburg demonstration was notable for its peaceful atmosphere.
Sasco says it rejects violence, but that the group cannot accept responsibility for the behaviour of frustrated students. They blame police and campus security for escalating tensions.
“The only time we see the rule of the state in higher education is when we see police on the campus of Unisa, on the campus of Turfloop, on the campus of Durban,” said Mamabolo.
Demonstrations forced the closure of the University of the North this week. Protesting students barricaded the campus on Tuesday and held administrative staff until late in the evening, when police were called to intervene. Eight students were arrested on Wednesday evening after three policemen were injured, one seriously, by stone-throwing on the campus. Police responded with rubber bullets. University spokesman John Wiltshire said it was the first time in many years that police had been called in.
Some student organisations are critical of Sasco’s tactics. The Azapo affiliated Azanian Students’ Congress (Azasco) supports Sasco’s demands, but acting president Nelvis Qekema says class boycotts and trashing campuses was excessive.
And while the South African Liberal Students’ Association Wits branch participated in the Wednesday morning demonstration, members declined to march to the stock exchange, saying Sasco was barking up the wrong tree.
But Sasco has been successful in forcing some institutions to submit to its vaguely worded demands for all students to be registered regardless of their finances. The University of Port Elizabeth has agreed to a moratorium on exclusion of students who cannot pay their fees. The University of the Free State followed suit by extending the deadline for students to pay overdue fees to June 30.
Next week student protests will be directed at the Finance Department. Current plans are for a nationwide stay away on March 12, with a student march on Parliament coinciding with the budget vote.