Cape Town - Minister of Public Works Thulas Nxesi was booed on Monday as he tried to address a university worker-student alliance of protesters outside Parliament.
About 300 students from UCT, UWC and Cape Peninsula University of Technology marched to Parliament on Monday, demanding a response to the memorandum handed over to the Department of Higher Education last week.
The government addressed the issues raised in the memorandum; the zero percent fee increase for next year, free quality education, the development of an afrocentric curriculum, an end to outsourcing of services at universities, and the issue of police brutality witnessed on October 21 when students took their fight to Parliament.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi, in his capacity as acting higher education minister in Blade Nzimande’s absence, tried to address students on the government’s response to the students’ memorandum.
undefinedOn the zero percent fees increase, Nxesi wrote that the shortfall in university funding had been calculated at R2.3bn. To address the shortfall, the department of higher education had “already committed to contribute R1.935bn”, with universities chipping in with the remaining R394.7 million.
But students didn’t give Nxesi the chance to read out the government’s response, but booed him and demanded to be addressed by Zuma and Nzimande.
Protesters chanted “Zuma, Zuma, Zuma”.
Nzimande and President Jacob Zuma are on a state visit to Germany.
Nxesi said the department had, in 2012, commissioned a working group to determine the feasibility of free quality education. “The South African government has already committed to the progressive realisation of free higher education for the poor, up to undergraduate level,” the statement read. “The issue now is the financing model which should be properly designed.”
He said the findings of the working group were available on the higher education department’s website.
The department would also ensure that universities take into consideration the calls for an afrocentric curriculum when laying out coursework guidelines, to ensure “curriculum transformation is effected forthwith”.
“This will require a democratic process of consultation and reaching of consensus within the institutions, as the department cannot dictate the academic content of what institutions offer.”
The department had expressed support for the decision of some universities to end outsourcing. However, Nxesi’s statement reiterated that the department of higher education could not deal with “labour relations issues”.
Nxesi said the issue of police brutality had been referred to acting police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane. However, he said the department was unable to withdraw charges laid against scores of students, “as we did not open any charges in relation thereto”.
“We urge students to respect the law and the Constitution of the Republic when engaging with protests to avert confrontation with the security agencies and for police to exercise restraint when engaging with peaceful protesters.”
Nxesi said the government believed in the right to protest “within the prescripts of the laws of our country”, but police were expected to “always act with restraint and within the confines of the law” when dealing with protesters.
Last week the student-worker alliance gathered at Parliament for a second time to hand over a memorandum demanding free education, an Afrocentric curriculum, insourcing and the withdrawal of charges against students involved in #FeesMustFall protests at all universities.
Student-worker alliance spokesperson Masixole Mlandu said the issues students and workers faced were related.
“When a worker who is my mother or my father is exploited and cannot afford to pay the fees of the university where I study then it is clear that our concerns are the same concerns,” he said, adding the alliance would reconvene and was mobilising people from various communities to strengthen support.
Meanwhile, at Stellenbosch University, workers and students gathered at the Rooi Plein, where students stood in solidarity with outsourced workers. The workers handed university management a memorandum calling for outsourcing to be reviewed.
They also called for the direct re-employment of all workers in outsourced services, a basic minimum wage of R10 000, and job security – the protection of the workers who are there with no unilateral transfer from contract to contract.
They have also called for the disbanding of the university’s newly created task team to investigate the process of insourcing and that it be replaced with a Joint Bargaining Forum consisting of all outsourced companies, university management, organised labour and student organisers. They have requested a meeting with the university council on Wednesday to address their demands.
University spokesperson Martin Viljoen said: “Management will be able to respond only once they’ve had the opportunity to study the memorandum.”
Cape Argus and Cape Times
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