Wits SRC leaders vow to continue fees protest

This comes after the Student Representative Council (SRC) convened a demonstration at the main campus in Braamfontein on Thursday. 

The SRC called on management not to shut its doors to the students who have outstanding fees. 

SRC deputy president Sthembiso Dabula says they’re calling for all holds to be cleared against students with historical debt. 

“Time and time again as the SRC we emphasise that 8142 students are at the verge of being financially excluded. This means that even these students that are deserving to be in the system, they cannot be brought back to the system on the basis that they are owing fees,” says Dabula. 

“In previous years what they would normally do is if you are having debt as a student, they would allow you if you owed R120 000 going down, to register without you having to pay those fees. You sign an AOD (acknowledgement of debt) and you’re allowed to register but what happened differently in the year 2021, they said that only students that are owning R10 000 and downwards must be allowed to register,” she explains. 

“They are not taking into account that this has been an unprecedent year, Covid affected everyone – businesses lost money, students were defunded by NSFAS, defunded by their own bursaries.” 

A small contingent of police was on standby, although the demonstration remained peaceful.  

Dabula vows that students would return to the campus on Friday to disrupt registration at the west campus, until management makes a concession to all their demands.  

“We are going to shut Hall 29 down tomorrow and in us doing that it’s mainly because we saw management actually responsive and reactive to what we have done today.” 

But Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel says it’s not that simple.  

“The amount of money that students owe the university is sitting at R1 billion at the moment. If we are to remain financially sustainable and viable as a university, we cannot increase the amount of debt owed to the university,” says Patel. 

She further denies that over 8000 students risk exclusion this year. 

Management met with the student leaders on Wednesday but couldn’t come to an agreement. 

Patel says the university made some concessions, but the student leaders are not satisfied.  

“The university has made a number of concessions. It’s the R10 million to the Wit hardship fund plus another R10 million as part of a Covid-19 relief fund – that’s R20 million that the university has already put towards students that have been impacted by the pandemic,” Patel says. 

“Secondly, we’re allowing students who own less than R10 000 from the previous year to register, we’re allowing students to pay 50% of the debt if they own R10 000 or less, we aren’t charging any interest on the 2020 academic year fees or the 2021 academic year fees and if students are genuinely in need, we will try to help them as far as possible.”

Every year during the registration period, students protest over the exorbitant tuition and accommodation fees. 

The stand-off between the country’s youth and university management reached boiling point during the Fees Must Fall protests in 2015 and 2016. 

Patel added she doesn’t anticipate that any further demonstrations would stand in the way of the university’s registration and academic plans.  

Listen to Shirona Patel below:

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