Pretoria - The fire brigade had to be called in at Unisa's Sunnyside campus on Monday after protesters burnt plastic bins and rubbish to express their dissatisfaction with management.
Hundreds of outsourced workers at the university, including security guards and cleaners, together with student leaders, closed down the campus in an effort to force management to do away with outsourcing and permanently employ workers on contracts.
Outsourcing was one of the issues raised during the #FeesMustFall campaigns on campuses last year, especially at the University of Cape Town, Wits and Stellenbosch.
Workers at Unisa are demanding a minimum wage of R10 000, full benefits and are opposed to retrenchments, calling for those workers who have been retrenched to be reinstated.
Registration and services were disrupted and protesters chanted struggle songs and held up placards reading #Outsourcing must fall” and “Cleaners’ lives matter”. Police stood behind the gates of the registration centre while protesters roamed outside baying for the chancellor.
President of the Economic Freedom Fighters student council, Mpho Morolane, accused the university’s management under principal and vice-chancellor Professor Mandla Makhanya as being reluctant and stubborn in demonstrating commitment towards insourcing made by several other universities.
Morolane said they would continue to protest every day until the council has discussed and implemented in-sourcing.
“Last year, the council said a task team would be set up to deal with our grievances and to date there is no such task team,” he said.
Maria Lusaka, a cleaner, said she couldn't get a bank loan because she wasn't permanently employed. “I can’t even properly feed my kids because of the peanuts we are getting. We are pleading with the Unisa management to please employ us permanently,” she said.
Not everyone supported the protest action, with many students saying they wanted to register for 2016. Some students left the campus after realising that they would not be able to complete their registration process.
Sello Mashao said he failed to secure his application even though he had paid the fees.
Protesters added that in the wake of the student uprising, outsourced workers at colleges and universities across the capital have held meetings and organised themselves into the #outsourcingmustfall campaign, alongside outsourced workers from the municipality and government departments in the city.
At a meeting on Saturday, the workers committees resolved to begin a campaign of action.
Unisa spokesman Martin Ramotshela said the Unisa Council took a decision on December 4 that the university would insource services rendered by external service providers. He said a task team convened and chaired by Dr Somadoda Fikeni had started work so any suggestion of a lack of progress was simply not true.
The university remains committed to meeting the implementation deadline of six months as given by its council, he said.
Pretoria News