The Mafikeng campus of North West University will close until further notice, the management announced on Wednesday.
”Due to the continued unrest on campus management has decided … to close the university with immediate effect,” the university said in a statement.
This step was taken after three days of struggling to ”bring the situation to normality”, said Sam Motabogi, the campus spokesperson.
”Both academic and administrative functions are on hold. Staff also yesterday [Tuesday] didn’t come to work. Today they haven’t come to work. Students since Monday have decided not to attend classes.”
He said the decision to close the campus was made in the interests of the safety of staff and students.
Since Monday the management has been meeting with the student representative council (SRC), a breakaway student body, the staff association and the African National Congress Youth League, which has set itself up as a mediator.
Motabogi was adamant that the actions taken by students and staff were unnecessarily extreme.
”We have been engaging with them,” he said. ”Their issues have been dealt with. They have been demonstrating despite the response given by management.”
However, the staff’s major complaint is that no attempt has been made by the management to address their long-standing problems.
On Tuesday the staff association delivered a memorandum to the Department of Education, asking, among other things, for the entire executive management of the Mafikeng campus to be withdrawn.
Students are demonstrating about entirely different issues: they are unhappy with the present SRC, and with the suspension and financial exclusion of certain students.
The Mafikeng campus used to be part of the University of the North West. In January it merged with Potchefstroom University to become North West University. However, the management structures are still separate, said Frikkie Kotse from the Potchefstroom campus.
Motabogi said the two campuses have been in communication, and Potchefstroom’s management structures support Mafikeng’s decisions.
However, the interim vice-chancellor, who functions from the Potchefstroom campus, has not been available for comment on the matter.
”Ideally Potchefstroom should get involved,” said ANC Youth League provincial secretary Kabelo Matoboge, who has been trying to intervene in the impasse.
He said some of the problems raised involve the merger process. — Sapa