Durban - The South African Union of Students
(SAUS) threat of a nationwide
shutdown of universities this week did not go as planned on Monday.
There were no reported disruptions at campuses on Monday morning and all seemed to be quiet.
At the weekend, the student organisation had listed 15 demands they wanted the Department of Higher Education to meet - failure to which would have resulted in a shut of universities.
The organisation consists of student representative councils from 26 universities around the country.
The threat comes as universities are still registering students for this year.
In a statement, SAUS said some of their demands were that there should be a debt relief fund for students, and students who had historical debt should be allowed to register.
Another demand was that “fees must fall in all universities that increased fees without consultation with the SRC”, the statement said.
SAUS also demanded that there should be free registration for vulnerable, poor, and “missing middle” students (parents of students with gross final income of R600 000 or less).
If their demands were not met, SAUS said it would be “ready to do anything”.
From last week the union had begun a countdown towards Monday’s strike action and had started to mobilise during the weekend.
This was not the first time SAUS had threatened a national shutdown. In February, it was reported that SAUS had made a list of demands which had included the scrapping of historical debt, better accommodation and facilitation of more students at universities. The then minister of higher education, Naledi Pandor, had said that some issues, such as historical debt, could be resolved instantly.
In response to this year’s list of demands, Minister Blade Nzimande said in a letter that the department had provided funding towards the erasure of historical debt for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) qualifying students and had paid R450 million in historical debt thus far.
“I am aware that there is significant student debt within the university system owed by students who are not NSFAS beneficiaries. Unfortunately, public funds for the university system are constrained and there is no possibility that debts of students who are not NSFAS-qualifying can be eradicated by government,” Nzimande said.
He said SRCs were represented at the councils of universities where decisions about the increase of university fees were made. Nzimande said fees were increased according to a set structure which limited the increase. “The SRCs should engage with the relevant structure of the university,” he said.
Nzimande said the department would engage with the universities which had increased their fees outside of the structure.
“All NSFAS-qualifying students are able to register at all 26 public universities without paying an upfront fee. This mechanism was in place in 2019. Students not qualifying for NSFAS have to make upfront payments to universities, according to the policies of the institution,” he said.
Mnqobi Mhlezane, secretary-general of the University of KwaZulu-Natal SRC, said they supported the call by SAUS, but also had to consider a number of factors such as Orientation Day, expected to take place on Monday. He said they would talk to the university management today and this would determine the course they would take.
UKZN spokesperson Ashton Bodrick said they were consulting the SRC to try to find solutions to the problems.