Pretoria - The management at Unisa is immature and failed to lead by example and was subsequently humbled by a court setting aside its decisions to limit first entry students and have one long semester for 2021, said SRC president Wadzanai Mazhetese.
This comes after the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, ruled in favour of the EFF student command and the Black Lawyers Association Student Chapter who took the university and the Minister of Higher Education Science and Technology Blade Nzimande to court over the two unfavourable decisions.
Earlier this year, with the minister having advised universities to accommodate 2020 matriculants whose results were still pending, Unisa ushered in a largely opposed one semester system that saw students come together to forge a partition to convince the university that the "super semester" would make life harder for students.
Nzimande shortly followed this by recommending that Unisa trim down the number of first entry students by 20 000 to help ease the funding load on the struggling National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) - another decision students thought was unlawful and unethical.
Mazhetese said the court setting aside the decisions by Unisa proved that management at Unisa was immature and failed to act within the law and in the interests of the students it claims to serve, despite an outcry from aggrieved students.
He said: "Minister Blade Nzimande was making recommendations to Unisa management but they simply just jumped and accepted his recommendations without opposing him and saying "no, minister Nzimande."
"A university is a place of critical thinking, engagement, research and information, but these people failed to demonstrate that. They did not even engage students when making these poor decisions but they went to the media and lied that they engaged us.
"This must be humiliating to all the respondents including Unisa, Nzimande, the executive council of Unisa, the council of Unisa, the Senate of Unisa because we did not even want to take them to court in the first place. We wanted to engage and find solutions together but they were too arrogant."
Unisa spokesperson Edgar Rathelele said Unisa has taken note of the court orders pertaining to the court case brought against the minister and the university and will study them.
He said this will be followed by the necessary consultations with the relevant decision-making structures of the university as well as the minister as the primary respondent; determine the best way forward on the matter.
"The university wishes to emphasise that any decision on the way forward will be taken with the best interests of the students at heart.
"Such a decision will also seek to demonstrate our student-centredness as a university; as well as our commitment to the ideals encapsulated in the National Development Plan and its aspirations to empower young people to improve their lives through education," he said.
Chairperson of the EFF student command Thabo Maake said Unisa was failing to show that it could act in the interests of students, leading to students taking it to court and protesting to reverse unfavourable decisions.
He said the students were ready to shutdown all campuses and offices of Unisa across the country and render the university ungovernable just to ensure that young people who needed education were not excluded because of Nzimande's decision.
Pretoria News