Rogue protesters a cause for concern

Cape Town-151030. Scores of UWC students carried on protesting today with regard to the Fees Must Fall campaign. Property was damaged and selftrained masked guerillas ran amok destroying property and disarming security guards on the campus Reporter: Wendyl Martin.Photo: jason boud

Cape Town-151030. Scores of UWC students carried on protesting today with regard to the Fees Must Fall campaign. Property was damaged and selftrained masked guerillas ran amok destroying property and disarming security guards on the campus Reporter: Wendyl Martin.Photo: jason boud

Published Nov 1, 2015

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The rector and vice-chancellor of the University of Western Cape has written a open letter about the recent violent student protest at the institution. Here is the full text of the letter:

Open letter to the Editor

Friday 30 October 2015, was a regrettable and very sad day for the University of the Western Cape and for the higher education sector in South Africa.

History will record that for the past two to three weeks a national movement around affordability and accessibility has forever changed the landscape of higher education in South Africa. It has been a movement of such significance that it has been monitored and supported all over the world.

At our institution, the University of the Western Cape (UWC), we embraced this movement given our proud history of being at the forefront of ensuring equitable and affordable access to higher education, especially for the marginalised and the poorest of the poor.

The first achievement of this movement was the 0% fee increase announced by President Jacob Zuma on Friday, 23 October 2015.

Students at UWC joined the national protest on Wednesday, 21 October 2015. We closed the University on 22 and 23 October 2015, understanding the national conditions and responding to the call for the national shutdown. On Friday, 23 October 2015, at the invitation of the Student Representative Council (SRC), I addressed our students who also used the opportunity to express themselves on a number of issues specific to UWC.

Following the announcement by the President, management of UWC met with the SRC to deliberate on the process towards the implementation of this decision and to address other institution-specific issues raised in a memorandum of demands, submitted by the SRC. The SRC welcomed the announcement for the no fee increase and in a statement released on Sunday, 25 October 2015, called for the resumption of the academic programme whilst at the same time engaging in a dialogue to address the institution-specific issues.

Despite this call by the SRC for the academic programme to continue from Monday 26 October 2015, a group of students, acting independently of the SRC, continued with protest action. Some of these protests have unfortunately been marred by acts of violence, intimidation of staff and students, vandalism of university property and the assault of students who didn't want to participate in an extended strike. This group has communicated that they would like to see me in person to hand over a Memorandum. The University student governance policies, as prescribed in our University Statute, are clear on the mandate of the SRC as a statutory body. As a person who respects democracy and the rights of others, I did not want to undermine the voices of minority groups and subsequently facilitated the presentation of their demands to the SRC and members of my Executive team. The Executive Management and the SRC are already in negotiation addressing the issues in the Memorandum.

In a staff meeting held on Thursday, 29 October 2015, there was a sentiment expressed that the protesting group only wanted to be heard and that the Executive should find ways to make that happen. Subsequent events, as described below, create doubts about whether that is really the end goal since, in addition to the Friday, 23 October 2015, student assembly that I spoke at, as well as the facilitated meeting with the SRC, we also set in motion a process to have a facilitated engagement led by an eminent person.

On Friday, 30 October 2015, our Chancellor, Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, graciously agreed to facilitate such a dialogue to ensure a safe and conducive environment for students to continue with their examinations peacefully, even though he only returned from London that morning.

While I was briefing the Archbishop on the objectives of the intervention, arrangements were made for him and me to meet with the SRC first and then with the leaders of the protesting group. Soon after this arrangement was communicated, a group of students marched from the Student Centre to the residences, indicating that they were going to mobilise support. At the residences the security refused them entry, which led to students using “bricks, belts, sticks and sjamboks” against the security. Several of our security were injured and one so badly that he required hospitalisation.

The protesting group then proceeded in the direction of the Student Centre, thrashed and vandalised the Administration building (the first and second floors of both the East and West wings), the Campus Protection offices and the School of Government building. There are other reports of widespread damage all over the campus.

Members of the executive, professional staff, SRC members and I were basically trapped in the Administration building by the actions of a small group of students with bricks and other weapons, attempting to hold us hostage. As I, members of the executive and professional staff as well as the SRC, were trapped in the building, I experienced first-hand the trauma that our residence students have been going through for the last number of days.

The Chancellor was invited by the group to accept their Memorandum with the promise that it would bring order and stability to the campus. At the handing over of the Memorandum, the terms of engagement changed. They then unilaterally demanded that I respond to the Memorandum on Saturday, 31 October 2015, at 13:00. For understandable reasons this is not an option for me.

To do so would be to communicate that violence is a means to force people to talk to you. Given the events that unfolded on campus on Friday, 30 October 2015 the University Executive cannot accept that, if you are violent and destroy property, force and intimidate others to participate in the protest, as well as attempt to hold people hostage in buildings, your voices will be heard. I am also deeply disturbed at what started out as a laudable national movement has degenerated at UWC into a violation of the basic rights of others (freedom of choice, right to education and right to safety and security etc.). We have also observed that what is at play here is the high level of political intolerance. The deep polarising division amongst our students has become apparent in this process. Surely we have a societal responsibility for creating a context wherein differences of views and opinions are allowed to flourish and be respected.

As a father myself, I experienced deep levels of distress on reading some of the reports that I have received from those students who, while supporting the national movement, chose to exercise their democratic right not to participate in the latest protest action on campus. For me to accede to the demand of meeting with the protesting students in the current climate is to condone and minimise the horrific experience of many of our students.

Following yesterday's rampage, we engaged with residence students and offered them the option of off-campus accommodation and this resulted in us moving our most vulnerable students (mostly 1st years) off-campus. This option is still available to students.

A student wrote this letter to me:

“I am scared for my safety and I am at the point where I am scared for my life. These protestors are relentless and they will not stop. They are using extremely violent measures to get people to join them and the protests irrespective your stance on the fees must fall movement. Yesterday they sprayed fire extinguishers under people's doors so that you can't breathe and have to come out of your room and physically hurt both males and females. I am trapped in my room too scared to shower or go to the bathroom because I fear these men. The police came and for the first time we felt safe and secure but then they left leaving us yet again to our own devices. We are tired and emotionally drained. Many of us don't even have family members we can go to. I just want to go home.”

If we allow this to happen, that a small group of aggrieved students can hold an entire higher education institution to ransom in this way, irrespective of the possible legitimacy of their demands, then I'm deeply concerned about the future of higher education in particular and our country in general. I have issued a statement requesting the protesting students to step down and allow the processes that have been initiated to unfold.

While the University is determined to resolve this situation in a way that reaffirms the importance of higher education and recognises the basic rights of all, as enshrined in our Constitution, we call on parents, alumni, community leaders and other stakeholders to recognise the important role that they can play in normalising the situation.

Professor Tyrone Pretorius, Rector and Vice-Chancellor

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