Wits University lit overnight

Several fires were started on the Wits Main campus together with a number of buildings’ windows being shattered on Wednesday night until the early hours of Thursday, allegedly by student protesters.

Rubbish: Concrete bins and rocks were used to shatter windows 

Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel says a group of 60 students split into small groups and went around vandalising the property on campus from 9pm to 4am this morning.

Small fires were started outside the Old Mutual Hall, Umthombo Building, DJ Du Plessis Building and the Grand Stand at the Science Stadium. The fires did not spread and appear to have not caused serious damage.

Parts of Central Block was flooded as students left the taps open in the building’s bathrooms.

 

Patel says that two students were arrested but could not confirm what they have been charged with. Hillbrow police station was not available to comment.

The university has said classes will continue today and students safety is guaranteed.

“We will not be intimidated,” said Patel.

The university campus is quiet this morning with private security and police on standby.

Originally published on Wits Vuvuzela: http://witsvuvuzela.com/2016/10/14/wits-university-lit-overnight/

Finger-pointing as students threaten shutdown on Monday

Historic General Assembly postponed with student protesters and Wits administration blaming each other.

As told to: I don’t care, who are you, go away!

Siwongiwe Mata is a first-year BA Anthropology student whose face got burnt by a stun grenade last week when police tried to disperse students near the university entrance.

Media and parents lambasted at #FEES2017 public meeting

A group of academics from the University of Johannesburg and Wits University facilitated a public meeting on #Fees2017.

Day 5 Wits #Fees2017: COSATU to join FMF march October 14

COSATU will join the Fees Must Fall movement and march with students on October 14.

Police thwart students’ plans to march to police station

Protesting students had to abort their plans to march to the Hillbrow police station in solidarity with 31 students who had been arrested earlier today.

The students had gathered at the Wits Education Campus and had said they would go back to the main campus via the Wits Business School and the police station. However, Busisiwe Seabe, one of the protest leaders, told the protesters that the police had threatened to shoot if students moved in one large group. She said the police wanted the students to move in groups of two or else there would be violence.

The police also wanted the students to stay off the main roads but they later authorised the group to move via Empire Road towards the main campus.

Seabe, however, vowed that the protesters would continue to move forward, adding that the leaders could form a chain around other students in order to protect them. “They must shoot us before they shoot you,” she said.

The student leaders requested the media to move to the front in order to allow them to keep students in an organised formation.

The students continued to chant and dance while making their way to the Empire Road entrance in order to continue the shutdown of the Wits Main Campus.

Originally published on Wits Vuvuzela: http://witsvuvuzela.com/2016/09/20/police-thwart-students-plans-to-march-to-police-station/

Police fire stun grenades at protesting students

#Feesmustfall2016 Explained: Why Witsies are protesting

All you need to know about protests at Wits

Blade passes the bucks

Wits University students have embarked on a shutdown of the institution after the Minister of Higher Education failed to announce free education at a press conference earlier this morning.

Minister Blade Nzimande said universities needed to determine their own fee increases but added that this increase should be capped at 8%.

Nzimande added that government will absorb the cost of the increase of the “missing middle” and students on the NSFAS scheme and anticipates that this coverage will cost approximately R6,5-R6,6 billion. According to Nzimande, the “missing middle” refers to households earning less than R600 000 per annum.

Responding to comments about potential protests at campuses around the country, Nzimande said that higher education is not free and that a moratorium on fees “means you are campaigning for the rich”. Nzimande says that those who can afford to pay for tertiary education adding that government was unclear on how parents can send their children to private schools and yet expect to have their tertiary education subsidised.

Responding to the announcement by the minister, incoming SRC president Kefentse Mkhari told a gathering in Solomon Mahlangu House: “Basically what the minister is saying is that there will be a fee increase so the university must shutdown.”

The official shutdown is set to start tomorrow as protest leaders move from venue to venue to gather more students. Wits vice chancellor Professor Adam Habib told Wits Vuvuzela that is currently overseas in New York at a UN General Assembly for the launch of HEforSHE campaign. Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel said: We will consult with stakeholders and make further comment afterwards.

Originally published on Wits Vuvuzela: http://witsvuvuzela.com/2016/09/19/blade-passes-the-bucks/

Wits SRC threatens to “take it to the streets” over unfavourable fee announcement

Wits SRC has announced plans to shut down the campus under the banner of #FessMustFall2016 should the Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande announce a fee increase at a highly-anticipated press conference later today.

Secretary General Fasiha Hassan said the SRC has invited students to gather at Solomon Mahlangu House, (Senate House), to watch the minister’s announcement about the recommendations of the Fees Commission. It is expected that Nzimande will definitively answer the questions around possible fee increases.

Hassan said if today’s announcement was unfavourable, “we will have to do what we did last year that is take to the streets”.

In a statement released a short while ago, Wits University says that “security has been strengthened and the police is on standby this week. We remind all colleagues and students that an interdict remains in place to protect staff, students and University property”.

Hassan says today’s gathering will also address the issue “that the focus cannot be on a fee increment but rather on free education”, a point missed by the government and universities.

The SRC noted that the anniversary of the 2015 FeesMustFall protest is drawing closer and yet the implementation of their demands has been slow and half-hearted.

“We have not been taken seriously, it’s as if we have not been heard,” said Hassan.

Wits EEF Student Command chairperson Koketso Poho said if it came to it Wits EFF were ready for a shutdown.

“But it will not be on the basis of a fee increment but on the basis of free education” he said.

At a townhall meeting with students in August Wits Vice Chancellor Professor Adam Habib said Universities South Africa (USAf) had told the higher education ministry that they needed an additional 8% income. “That doesn’t necessarily mean a fees income. We hope that 8% could come from government subsidies,” said Habib.

Originally published on Wits Vuvuzela: http://witsvuvuzela.com/2016/09/19/wits-src-threatens-to-take-it-to-the-streets-over-unfavourable-fee-announcement/