STATEMENT BY THE PROVINCIAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF SASCO IN KZN The South African Students Congress in the province of KwaZulu-Natal has observed at a close distance the unrest and turmoil in institutions of higher learning across the province. For most of the first quarter of the academic calendar, we have seen strikes in most of our campuses, in particular universities and universities of technology. We have since in line with the statement released by the National Executive Committee of SASCO released a provincial statement warning that these issues be handled with delicate care and be resolved speedily as we want our students across the province to continue with their academics, graduate and contribute to the development of the country both economically and socially through skills and knowledge acquired from these institutions. We have further noted that our institutions of higher learning have rather taken a posture of being centers for trade where education is made a commodity and only the rich, White or Indian are better positioned to easily access as opposed to the off spring of the working class and the poor, SASCO in the province further notes with dismay the inequalities which continue to persist 20 years into our democracy in education where only transformation exist at face value but the structural foundations of apartheid are still a night mare to the most downtrodden. This not an argument of assumption but based on our experiences during and or in attempts to resolve some of these issues with respective university management. • The prohibition of our students to gather in UKZN through a court order that restricts students, SASCO and the SRC to gather in groups more than 20 (modern version of the then apartheid gatherings act). • The shooting of students by securities deployed by universities brutally such that many have been admitted in hospital for engaging in mass action • The arrest of peaceful protesters only based on an instruction from university officials with no bases hence no case as we speak has held water in any of the courts due to the unavailability of evidence and hence all students arrested have since been released Already in UKZN registration has been closed yet above 3000 students whom academically deserving and are financially needy have been shut out of the system due to the closure of registration on the 21 February 2014. We continue to believe that education should be accessible to all, black or white, rich or poor and this is why we commit to the struggle for free education for all. The Department of Higher Education and Training has committed 1bn to the NSFAS in a said attempt to resolve the challenges in institutions largely caused by the lack of funding in our institutions. We have viewed this as a public political grand standing rather than an intervention to the crisis existing in our institutions, we say this because the increase in enrollment of FET students by 50% has increased the burden on financial aid by thousands of students which therefore translates the 1bn additional funding only a tear drop in the ocean. We welcome the support by the ANC in KZN in its’ recent statement on our call for the minister to intervene on the ongoing crisis and further warn that our support for a working class Minister was not a signature on a blank cheque but it brought hope to the working class and the poor that finally in education they will be liberated. We have therefore resolved to hold a provincial march in order to intensify our call for an intervention by the department of higher education. The provincial march is as follows 27 March 2014 9h00 Curries Fountain (Next to DUT) to TRURO HOUSE We call upon our sister organizations ANCYL, YCLSA and COSAS and all MDM structures to join us hand in hand in this march. For more information contact Dumo Ntyinkala Provincial Chairperson 0735217661 Koloba Ntshangase Provincial Secretary 0762595412
Posted on: Tue, 25 Feb 2014 21:04:26 +0000
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