Education activist Hendrick Makaneta has called on the Higher Education and Training Minister Dr. Nobuhle Nkabane to urgently dispatch a mediation team to cease an ongoing hunger strike by returning students at Wits University. Today marks the seventh day since financially excluded students organised a hunger strike due to their inability to settle their debt or even pay half of the required amount. According to the institution, the students will only be allowed to register if they have a debt of less than R10 000 or pay 50% of their outstanding debt.
Makaneta said that the students’ demands can’t be shrugged off.
“The students’ demands are legitimate, especially because of the rising unemployment rate in the country.
Even though some of the protesting students are graduates already, there is no guarantee that they will lead a better life should they remain excluded by the university.
We call on the university to find other ways to accede to the demands and allow the protesting students to register for their postgraduate qualifications,” said Makaneta.
He lambasted the university’s management for failing to engage the protesting students, following reports about their deteriorating health conditions.
“There’s a trend of our professors, because they are professors sometimes, they treat students as minors and decide not to engage them.
Because they believe that as professors, they know better than students and we think that that should not be the case.
Vice-Chancellor and Principal Professor Zeblon Vilakazi should come down a listen to these students.
Because remember even though they’re not registered, the fact that they’re returning students simply tells you that they’re students at the university,” explained Makaneta.
He further said that helping students to register should not be seen as a burden on the coffers of the university, but rather as an investment that will yield better results in the future.
“We urge the mediation team to speed up the process of engaging the Wits management and students with a view to ending the hunger strike without further delay,” pleaded Makaneta.
