Pretoria - In what they say is a first for any university since the outbreak of the #FeesMustFall violence, University of Pretoria students have created a forum to ensure that academic activities resume unhindered, and for fees to fall peacefully.
“We are doing great work in progressing non-violent protests. We facilitated meetings where different student movements come together and discuss the current situation. This is not happening at any other university in the country,” founders of the forum told the Pretoria News on Sunday.
The group is calling for the end of the stalemate between the #FeesMustFall movement, universities and the government. It does so under the banner of #OpenUpFeesMustFall Forum.
The forum said it was not a splinter organisation of #FeesMustFall and was also demanding that fees should fall - but through dialogue and without violence.
The forum was created by second-year mechanical engineering student Altus Bisschoff and his honours economics counterpart Kemsley Rajoo.
They said they witnessed a lack of progress within #FeesMustFall and decided that all affected but silenced by the unrest had to step up to be heard.
“Other voices are not being heard. All we hear are those of the #FeesMustFall campaigners all over the media. We thought that the majority of the students who aren’t necessarily part of that movement needed to be heard as well,” Rajoo said.
“We are not against #FeesMustFall, but surely there are more ways to skin a cat so that we can actually get the free education that everyone is looking for. We are for free education, but our methods of obtaining it are different.”
He said everyone needed to realise that South Africa was poor and had scarce resources, thus free education for everyone was not something that could be done right away.
“Yes, it can be feasible if taxes are increased, but the implications of doing so might affect the poor and shrink the middle class who are already quite stretched.
“There are many who would say let’s get free education for the poor first and then move to a situation where our country can afford it for everyone else,” said Rajoo.
They said while interacting with other students, they realised that not everyone wanted to suspend academic activities or stage violent protests.
“We can protest without suspending academic activities indefinitely, which seems to be the call at the moment,” said Bisschoff.
“We identified that there was a lack of leadership between the student movement and UP management; that is why we decided to create a bridge as it was not going to benefit anyone if campuses were closed down indefinitely. As it is, these shut-downs are affecting poor students the most.”
The students said the complete shut-down of campuses was not going to affect students only, but workers employed by the universities as well.
“We can’t achieve our goal by having a national shutdown because at the end of the day poor South Africans are being affected, and these include workers, vendors and waiters who are also waiting for things to return to normal,” said Rajoo.
Bisschoff said since the creation of the platform last Monday, representatives from the EFF, DA Student Organisation, SA Students Congress, lecturers, church representatives and the dean of student affairs had come forward to voice their opinions and voices.
The engagements would continue this week, and all participants shared an interest of proceeding until a consensus was reached on what could be done immediately to resolve the impasse.
“We don’t want organisations with problematic views to fill the gap with campaigns such as #TakeBackWits; Wits in any case is not theirs to take back. Tuks is different and making a difference while being peaceful.
“We will reiterate that we are not against fees falling, but let’s find solutions and bring the fees down in a constructive manner,” said Bisschoff.
Meanwhile, the Tshwane University of Technology notified students that academic activities would resume on Monday after the violent protests of last week.
There will be tighter security on campuses, with access only to those with student cards.
At Sefako Makgatho University, interim vice-chancellor Professor Chris de Beer said deliberations between management and student representatives regarding the continuation of the academic programme and other related matters had reached a sensitive stage.
“The student leadership is considering the latest input from the university council and management, and students, staff and parents will be informed of the outcome,” De Beer said.
“We remain confident that the parties involved in the discussion will find a constructive way forward and that the 2016 academic programme supplemented with an academic recovery plan, could still be concluded before the end of the academic year.”
Peace has continued to prevail at Unisa, and student leaders indicated that they too supported the demand for free education.
Pretoria News