UJ and Wits students to appear in court
At least 141 people – including workers and students – arrested during protests at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) were expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
The group consists of 33 students from UJ, 13 Witwatersrand University students and 95 workers. They were all arrested on Friday for allegedly violating a court order barring them from protesting near the campus.
They were held overnight at Brixton police station, but were released on warning on Saturday.
Protests against outsourcing of staff at the university drew support from students last week.
Meanwhile, the institution’s Vice Chancellor Ihron Rensburg, the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) and other worker representatives on Sunday signed an agreement on the “insourcing of outsourced services”. The affected workers would now be employed by the university, according to the agreement.
In terms of the memorandum of agreement, outsourced cleaning, protection, and gardening services would be insourced according to an agreed insourcing plan, and workers currently performing these services would be transferred through an agreed process to the university.
However, the UJ “Fees Must Fall” movement and its supporters took to social media to denounce the agreement.
The group said the agreement was signed in closed a meeting with a few representatives and excluded the protesters.
The worker representatives did not have a mandate to sign any agreement with the institution, they said.
In terms of the agreement, parties would participate constructively in the university’s insourcing task-team, charged with urgently developing and agreeing on the insourcing plan.
The task team was expected to complete its work before the end of the academic year.