Carlo Petersen
IN WHAT has been described as a “massive victory” for workers and students, UCT vice-chancellor Dr Max Price has announced the university’s commitment to the “principle” of insourcing.
In a day of high drama yesterday, a cheering crowd of 300 students heard the news that Price had agreed to end the hated system of outsourcing just moments after charges had been dropped in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court against 23 of their comrades for violating a court interdict.
Speaking outside the court, the Left Students Forum (LSF) said it had taken workers a decade of struggle to bring outsourcing to an end. But under the pressure of the worker-student alliance, UCT had buckled.
Representatives of the alliance, consisting of members from the LSF, Rhodes Must Fall (RMF) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) told the Cape Times that less than a month ago, UCT management had insisted that outsourcing was the most cost-effective option for the university.
But after protests that resulted in the institution being closed for two weeks and final exams being postponed, Price had done an about-turn, and had committed to the principle of insourcing.
“This decision assumes that we will have a commitment from staff and students that operations will be allowed to return to full capacity,” he said.
Price said insourcing would incur significant costs, but committed to finding the money.
Nehawu chairperson Patricia Bevie said the outsourced workers were “ecstatic but cautious”. “It’s a massive victory. Workers have met with management and it is now official that UCT will begin insourcing within six months, but we must be very cautious about what university management presents to us,” she said.
LSF said: “After more than a decade of rejecting the struggle for insourcing, UCT has capitulated to the pressure of the worker-student alliance. The LSF sees this as the biggest worker-student victory in the recent history of UCT.”
Last week, UCT management applied for an interdict to prohibit students and workers from certain action, including barricading entrances, arson, harassment and preventing management from returning to work. “The interdict resulted in police manhandling us, most especially women. One of my female friends had to be treated in hospital for injuries she sustained during an arrest,” said Mbali Matandela.
One of the 23 arrested, Matandela slammed UCT management yesterday. “We feel they had no grounds to bring the interdict because our actions were just. They acted in bad faith bringing the police in and now they are buckling due to the pressure and public’s perception,” Matandela said.
RMF celebrated that charges against the 23 were withdrawn, but questioned whether justice had been served. “Black students faced police brutality through the actions of their very own university, at the hands of an almost entirely white management while protesting for education and workers’ dignity. This cannot be ignored. Freedom doesn’t mean justice,” RMF spokesperson Brian Kamanzi said.
The collective’s legal representative, Mustaque Holland, from the National Association of Democratic Lawyers, said: “It was a good day for democracy in SA when institutions like UCT, as an institution of higher learning, display their commitment to foster healthy debate among students and the general public.
“Having said that, the constitution states that ‘everyone has the right, peacefully and unarmed, to assemble, to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions, which intersects the right to education and the right to equality’.”
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