South Africa: Students Barricade Universities in Johannesburg and Gqeberha

After attempting to meet with University of Johannesburg (UJ) management, over 100 students led by the South African Students Congress (SASCO) and the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFF SC) marched along Kingsway Avenue and blocked University Road outside the Auckland Park campus.

The students said they are demanding free and decolonised education, and for all students to be allowed to register. They want the Vice-Chancellor Tshilidzi Marwala and Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande to answer them.

"The universities are not going to operate until they meet our terms," said a UJ student and SASCO member. The student said they will disrupt lectures as well as online lectures.

EFF student command convenor at the Aukland Park campus, Siyabusa Mnisi, addressed the crowd: "Government does not want to meet the SRC. He's [Nzimande] acting like a celebrity and the whole world must know. That man is all over Twitter but when you go to his office he's busy."

"Marwala still sees UJ as RAU [Rand Afrikaans University closed in 2004]. He hasn't changed anything. We are still colonised in education."

Protestors then lay on the ground to block traffic.

Mnisi said, "Discipline must prevail here. You don't break anyone's car. You don't burn anyone's property. You don't fight any police. Don't fight the security. They are not the enemy. The enemy is the man sitting up there, Cyril Ramaphosa. The second enemy is that man called Blade Nzimande and our third enemy is Tshilidzi Marwala. Those are our enemies. If the person in front of you is not those three, you are destroying the wrong person."

Many protestors refused to speak to reporters and told the media to leave.

Police monitored but kept their distance. Mnisi addressed them, saying, "Police, we see you here. We never invited you ... We want to believe you are here in good faith to protect these students from any kind of assault. We have had enough of how the police are treating us."

Several South African universities have once again been under pressure from students who have raised several concerns around funding through demonstrations, as was the case at UJ, when some students demonstrated in the streets around the campuses. The University's academic programme continued as planned/scheduled as the first term is largely online.

University spokesperson Herman Esterhuizen told GroundUp, "The University's academic programme continued as planned/scheduled as the first term is largely online. The University is mindful of the concerns raised by the students and is making every effort to provide support, within the limited fiscal environment. The UJ Council also granted permission for NSFAS eligible first time entering students to register without paying the required registration fee, this year. We are assisting these students with this process. Currently, we have progressed very well with registrations and, to date, have registered more than 10,500 students, which represents over 97% of the planned 10,871 new undergraduate first year students."

He said: "A total of 2,532 NSFAS eligible students have registered and we continue with our efforts to assist those who have not. For the interim period, the University has granted the fully admitted but not yet registered students access to our [online] learning system."

This article originally appeared on GroundUp

Photo: GroundUp