News24.com | Protesting students assaulting educators, damaging property, committing arson, MPs hear

Wits students and Nehawu members protesting at the campus.

• Higher education institutions agreed that protesting students have legitimate reasons to demonstrate.
• Many of the issues affecting students are national issues and not specific to the universities.
• But education leaders are concerned over the violence seen in some of the protests.

Protests throughout institutions of higher learning are spurred on by national issues and not institution specific issues and students have valid reasons to object.

This was the consensus at the briefing by the Department of Higher Education, Universities South Africa (USAf) and South African Public Colleges Organisation (Sapco) to the National Assembly on Wednesday.

Despite this, the deputy minister of higher education, science and innovation, Buti Manamela, said the department was concerned about the violent nature of some of the protests.

The virtual meeting heard about students in the Western Cape assaulting educators and students in KwaZulu-Natal committing acts of arson.

It was also told that students in Gauteng surrounded the vice-chancellor’s home and threatened to burn it down, among other acts involving damage to property, blocking national roads and threats of violence.

This academic year, 14 institutions have experienced unrest with four being negatively impacted by the ongoing National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) strike.

Chair of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, noted that many of the issues brought up in the presentation were not the students' fault and were of a serious nature.

Director-general of higher education, Nkosinathi Sishi, presented the committee with the issues affecting students.

The delayed release of the National Senior Certificates affected new students registering for the first time.

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Sishi said this delayed students’ applications to institutions as well as applications for funds from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

In many cases the outdated NSFAS system also caused delays in registration. This system had started with 50 000 students but was now processing around a million students, and is in dire need of an upgrade, Sishi noted.

The R45 000 NSFAS accommodation cap has also been of major concern for many students.

The cap was put in place after it was discovered that there had been price fixing on accommodation, and a staff member from the University of Venda had been suspended over the issue.

The portfolio committee heard that in some instances, accommodation is a room shared by students, and can cost upwards of R70 000 for the year.

There was no uniformity in the accommodation and some had extra facilities like gyms and pools.

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In many instances the private accommodation costs much less than the accommodation for NSFAS students.

Some residences wanted R10 000 upfront when students had not yet received their funding. This issue has now been resolved.

Some institutions, like the University of Johannesburg, experienced protests over infrastructure issues like a lack of water or electricity.

In many cases these issues arose from the municipalities, but the institutions were aided with boreholes and other temporary measures. Far-flung institutions would eventually have solar panels and other provisions.

The NSFAS allowances caused issues when students were not paid at the same time. This had caused protests at an institution in the Eastern Cape.

The committee was also told that at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the Tshwane University of Technology, some of the issues had to do with infighting in student political leadership structures.