Cape Town - Protests continue at UCT and UWC as students say they will not stop until their demands are met.
The main issues students want addressed include the removal of fee blocks to allow students to register, and residential placements.
UCT students protested on the Mowbray/Rondebosch main road on Tuesday with the police present, continuing their call for an emergency meeting with council to lift fee blocks.
This after UCT on Monday evening said a decision had been taken to move the teaching and learning programme online with effect from Tuesday until further notice. Staff members were also advised to work remotely until informed otherwise, with the exception of essential service staff.
SRC vice-president Swazi Hlophe said: “Yesterday we went to management and asked them to call an emergency meeting with the council, who are the only people able to lift fee blocks and also suspend classes until we have solved the issue.
The response we got is no, they instead moved classes online and said they can’t call a meeting for council. It is a slap in the face and more exclusionary, a lot of the student demographic is black and people of colour, students from poor backgrounds.”
She said moving classes online was a “classist, elitist, exclusionary measure” under the circumstances.
UCT on Monday said the council had approved the amended fee debt threshold from R1 000 to R10 000, enabling more students to register in 2023 despite their outstanding debt, and its grace period enabled students with outstanding debt to access the academic project while working on settling the debt.
However, the SRC said that the threshold did not apply to international students or residences.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola on Tuesday said: “An emergency Rapid Response Task Team (RRTT) meeting to engage further with the student leadership was held on Monday. The university leadership will continue engaging with the SRC, and relevant stakeholders, to resolve issues as speedily as possible.”
Meanwhile at UWC, students held a mass demonstration over issues of outstanding financial clearance, and an extension for registration and residence placement, among others.
SRC president Mandla-Onke Notyawa said: “We handed over a memo of demands and have given them 24 hours to respond to it. We are still going to mobilise until the issues are resolved. The university is refusing to postpone the academic programme even when students are not able to register.”
The university said classes had resumed and 91% of undergraduate students had been registered thus far.
“Where disruptions have occurred, online support will be provided to students. The discussions with student leadership are ongoing.The enrolment target figure that was agreed upon in consultation with the Department of Higher Education and Training was 4 600. The application and registration process is a dynamic one since prospective students apply to multiple institutions and are given time to accept or decline the offer.”
“Placement in residence is an ongoing process at the moment. Those who have appealed with respect to residential placement will receive their responses as soon as possible,” said UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder.
Cape Times