New Age2.png Student bodies divided SRC structures come down hard on violent protests on campuses Lillian Selapisa and Batandwa Malingo, The New Age, Johannesburg, 21 September 2016 A split among students over the ongoing #FeesMustFall protests loomed across universities across the country. South African Union of Students (SAUS), a coalition for SRCs, has distanced itself from the violent free education protests. SAUS general secretary Sthembiso Ndlovu said the union supports Minister Blade Nzimande's decision to fund an increase for the poor and the missing middle. "We do not support protests about free education as we know that it is a step by step effort. We do not know who is behind the protests but we will be talking to students," he said. EFF At the University of Pretoria tensions were high when the EFF Student Command (EFFSC) and the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) clashed with the South African Students Congress (SASCO). SASCO openly urged students to desist from violence and take time to study the government's proposal while EFFSC and Pasma disrupted classes and called for a shutdown. Students belonging to the EFFSC and PASMA even burnt SASCO T-shirts. SASCO condemned the disruption of classes as "senseless" and called for the arrest of some EFFSC leaders. Wits University, University of the Free State, Rhodes University, University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Stellenbosch University, Tshwane University of Technology and Nelson Mandela University were some of the universities which experienced violent protests. Chaotic scenes broke out at Wits University as students and the university's private security company engaged in a stone-throwing exchange after the students were denied access to the institution's Great Hall. Some students were injured in the fierce battle and the hall was left damaged. Normal academic activities continued. A number of the universities have shut their doors with UFS expected to reopen on Friday while UCT opens tomorrow. Not about fee increases Wits University SRC general secretary Fasiha Hassan who is also deputy to Ndlovu at SAUS said although no fee increase represents something symbolic, their fight was never about fee increases. She said a moratorium on fees would not help as the same students who could not afford fees last year, would still not afford them next year. Nzimande condemned campus violence. "It is most disturbing to see such violent protests flamed by rogue elements after wide consultation was undertaken on the measures announced this week to address the ongoing issue of university fees. "The government has heeded the call of students by subsiding fee increases in 2017 to poor, working class and missing middle' students," he said. Populist renegades The minister early yesterday said some leaders that were party to the temporary fees compromise had reneged on the agreement and opted for populist rhetoric. Nzimande said he had minutes that show that some leaders pushing for protests were part of the joint meeting that agreed on an 8% fee hike cap. "The dialogue with students must continue, however damage to property and violence can never be tolerated," Nzimande said. The national Treasury yesterday also said a policy decision has been made to subsidise the fees of those students from poor backgrounds and the missing middle students. Meanwhile, Fort Hare University has assured students it would implement no increases for all students after students gave it two days to decide. n...@thenewage.co.za From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/21092016/epaperpdf/1.pdf __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14158 (20160921) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to yclsa-eom-forum@googlegroups.com or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email yclsa-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): yclsa-eom-forum-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to yclsa-eom-forum+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send an email to yclsa-eom-forum@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/003601d2144b%2460046850%24200d38f0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
