Read the Wits pledge for free education that protesting students would not agree to
Following the postponement of the Wits University General Assembly addressing the Fees Must Fall movement in the country, the university has released the pledge – supporting the goal of free education – that was to be read out, had students agreed to go back to class.
Wits management this week cancelled its academic activities amid violent student protests taking place on campus.
According to the university, it then dedicated all its resources to building consensus with the community to be able to continue the academic programme from Monday, 10 October.
“We had reached consensus with all university constituencies, including Council, Senate, Convocation, labour and staff – but not with the protesting students,” it said.
“Despite all our attempts and energetic engagement of former Black Student Society and SRC leaders, the mediation process with the protesting students was unsuccessful.”
The pledge that was to be read out at the Assembly said that the university supports the goal of free education, and committed resources to tackling the issue and working with the students to approach government with a united voice to achieve the goal.
However, consensus could not be reached as student leaders would not agree to go back to class, instead insisting that universities be shut down until free education was attained, Wits said.
Students, meanwhile, have rejected Wits’ account of events, saying that vice chancellor Adam Habib was being disingenuous in painting students as being unruly and unreasonable.
Former SRC president Shaeera Kalla said that students’ goal was to unite protesters and university management under one common denominator – free, quality and decolonized education.
Responding to the claim that students would not agree to go back to class on Monday, 10 October, Kalla said that the General Assembly was “not conditioned by anything else” other than the issue of free education.
Students are expected to hold their own press conference on the matter later on Friday.
This is the full pledge that was to be read out, including the commitment to fighting for free, quality and decolonized education.
The University of the Witwatersrand holds General Assemblies at crucial times in South Africa’s history. We are gathered here today in order to present a united University position with the aim of contributing to resolving South Africa’s ongoing higher education crisis.
The Wits community agrees that free, fully funded, quality, decolonised higher education is possible. We are committed to finding effective measures to achieve this goal.
South African education, including higher education, is in a systemic crisis. It is a crisis that is born of our colonial and apartheid history, but has been exacerbated by poor policy choices in the post-apartheid era. Since 1994, South Africa has been growing its higher education system, expanding the student base from 420 000 to just over one million. Yet the per capita subsidy for higher education has declined in real terms. This has forced universities to increase fees in an effort to maintain quality. The net effect has been to price higher education outside of the hands of ordinary South Africans.
This is a systemic challenge that has to be addressed, in part because it will enable us to heal our fundamental divides, including the poverty and inequality of our society. Education and higher education is one mechanism through which to draw individuals, families and communities out of the poverty trap, and to provide people with opportunities to fully participate in society and the economy. It is a basis on which to heal and create an inclusive society. The quest to enable access to universities for all of our students is a noble cause.
The University of the Witwatersrand therefore pledges our support for the goal of free, fully funded, quality, decolonized higher education. We pledge to approach government with a united voice for the realisation of this goal. We pledge to deploy our intellectual resources towards finding the best solutions. We are also prepared to support peaceful advocacy activities in this regard.
Ultimately, our efforts will be part of creating a new educational pact for South Africa that will be premised on a single principle: No student should be prevented from continuing and completing their studies because of a lack of finance.
More on protests
Black student’s message to whites: if there is going to be blood, it won’t be ours
Students cause Wits to close again until Monday
Wits vice-chancellor to students: ‘Why are you still protesting?’
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