Student protests turn violent

Vox Populi Vox Dei

Vox Populi Vox Dei

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So following on from last week's stampede at UJ, we now have the Western Cape version of student "activism"... :whistle:

Source: IOL

Students and security guards at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s city campus clashed on Tuesday as a protest about registration fees turned violent.

Students were pepper-sprayed and one collapsed after inhaling it. She was rushed to hospital and her condition was not known at the time of going to press.

The trouble started at about 10am when about 35 students affiliated to the SA Students’ Congress (Sasco), gathered at the campus to protest against the R5 000 registration fee.

Security was called in to disperse the group. The students refused to budge and the security guards, who numbered about 10, pepper-sprayed them.

A student retaliated by rugby-tackling a security guard. Other security guards came to their colleague’s aid and pepper-sprayed the student in the face.

The guards also used a stun gun on the student, who fled when the rest of the students dispersed.

A friend of the student who was rushed to the campus clinic and later taken to Somerset Hospital after inhaling pepper spray, said the girl had come from Worcester to register.

The friend refused to be named.

By the time police arrived at the campus, the students had dispersed and all was calm.

While chaotic scenes unfolded at CPUT, Sasco was assuring journalists during a press conference that its members were told not to use violence or damage property as part of the strike.

Sasco held the briefing at the ANC’s offices in the city centre to explain why it had launched the “indefinite” strike, which it said would affect all of the university’s campuses.

CPUT has campuses in areas including Bellville, Wellington, Mowbray and just outside the V&A Waterfront in Granger Bay.

Monwabisi Luthuli, Sasco’s provincial secretary, said R5 000 was an unreasonable registration fee.

Luthuli accused the university of mismanagement and said students affiliated to Sasco rejected the rumoured 12 percent increase in tuition fees for this year.

“As things stand, the university expects students to pay an absurd amount of R5 000 for residential students and R3 400 for Oppidan students (those not living in university accommodation),” said Luthuli.

“If the average South African household is not even earning R2 500 a month, you can’t say R5 000 (for registration) is reasonable,” he said.

He said the organisation was willing to negotiate with the university, but would not accept anything higher than a R2 500 registration fee for students living off-campus.

“We are prepared to pay R3 400 for residential students and R2 400 for Oppidan students for registration.”

“The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, committed, at our national congress, that the amount of R2 500 for registration must be kept,” said Luthuli.

He said the strike, which started yesterday, would continue “until further notice”.

“If we can get a solution tomorrow, we will suspend mass demonstrations,” said Luthuli.

He singled out the office of the dean of students at CPUT for particular criticism, saying there had been no move from the office to develop CPUT.

“Education is not a commodity, it is not something that we sell,” said Luthuli.

He said Sasco would submit a memorandum of demands to the chairperson of CPUT’s university council on Thursday.

“The memorandum will be submitted with all our demands, with fees and maintenance being most important on that list.”

Luthuli said the strike was peaceful, and that Sasco had told its members that no looting and no destruction of university property was permitted.

“Any violent people,” he said, “are not members of Sasco.”

CPUT said: “The council of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology reached a decision to increase class fees and residence fees by 11 percent for the 2012 academic year.

“In addition, a structural price adjustment has been applied to a number of university-owned residences which currently charge significantly lower fees than equivalent quality leased residences.”

It confirmed the R5 000 up-front payment for students in residence.

CPUT offered no comment on the violence.

Last May there were similar scenes at CPUT’s Cape Town campus when a shop was looted and administrative staff were urged to leave their desks during a student protest over registration fees.
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I'm sorry, but since when did anyone hold a gun to their head and force them to enroll?

I paid my tuition at CPUT and got a much better education than at the sorry excuse for technikons in the EC.

Presently we encounter a generation of self-entitlement.
 
Voicy said:
I'm sorry, but since when did anyone hold a gun to their head and force them to enroll?

I paid my tuition at CPUT and got a much better education than at the sorry excuse for technikons in the EC.

Presently we encounter a generation of self-entitlement.
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Agreed, I have to pay R8000 registration fee for wits this year... which is a lot, but I mean, that versus getting a good job... hmmm...
 
scotty777 said:
Agreed, I have to pay R8000 registration fee for wits this year... which is a lot, but I mean, that versus getting a good job... hmmm...
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and here I was complaining about Tukkies who put theirs up from 3000 to 3500 this year.
 
SA Students’ Congress (Sasco) AKA The ANCYL

Those bastards cause havoc where ever they can.
 
I was at this thing today... It wasn't as bad as the media portrayed it, but you could see something happening. The vice chancellor was rushed away during his speech by his bodyguards. Was quite a scene...
 
and her condition was not known at the time of going to press.
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Little old school. Why not just update the article later when they know or state "at this time".
 
Fransh said:
They also disrupt exams.. every exam there is a strike..
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Every year at Tukkies they try the same old tricks, they strike mainly twice in a year. The first time is in the beginning of the year when they need to pay class fees and the 2nd time at the end of the year when all of them failed.

This is mainly a SASCO thing, who represent about no one on campus, all the other students always get ticked off at them, which is why the SRC at Tukkies is mainly run by Afriforum and the DA. They can't accept that no one cares about them.
 
scotty777 said:
Agreed, I have to pay R8000 registration fee for wits this year... which is a lot, but I mean, that versus getting a good job... hmmm...
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+1

I nearly cried when I saw that number... I still have next year to go (hopefully if all goes to plan I will be done with my studies next year November). Though you're right about the job part :) it's just quite a lot upfront haha!
 
My brother's starting there this year and he says it left him feeling like he made a mistake deciding to go there.

Whether or not their protests are justified I really don't think it's fair for them to ruin the open day of other first years.

Oh and my mother said that girl got hit over the head by the security guard that's why she was out cold. My mom's known to exaggerate but I just don't see someone collapsing after inhalling pepper-spray especially since a lot of the 1st years and parents inhaled it (including my mom, dad and brother) and they were all fine.
 
Ahh,reminds me of the good ol' days at DUT, strikes every few weeks,fun times.
 
Hmmm so basically for the poorer community we say if you cannot afford it don't go, then we sit and bitch about the poor people who seem lazy.

Good on them for standing up. A similar thing happened in england awhile back. Very few parents have 5k, let alone a student.
 
killadoob said:
Hmmm so basically for the poorer community we say if you cannot afford it don't go, then we sit and bitch about the poor people who seem lazy.

Good on them for standing up. A similar thing happened in england awhile back. Very few parents have 5k, let alone a student.
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+1 Million Euros, couldn't have said it better myself!

Hypocrisy is killing us all.
 
Do students bum rush schools at the last minute only to find out that the costs to enroll are skyhigh? Do any of these students do research before applying to higher education departments? Are these institutions increasing fees at the last minute to try and weed out the riff raff?
 
killadoob said:
Hmmm so basically for the poorer community we say if you cannot afford it don't go, then we sit and bitch about the poor people who seem lazy.

Good on them for standing up. A similar thing happened in england awhile back. Very few parents have 5k, let alone a student.
Click to expand...

And what are they going to achieve exactly...? Tertiary education is not free. The fees are high but there are students who are in equally bad situations who have worked hard for bursaries or have taken out a student loans to try and pay the moneys. What exactly were they expecting when they went there...?
 
They want everything for nothing and don't expect to work for anything either, rather use the many ways and forces of corruption to get what you want. Yes I am generalizing because it's the party and the leaders of the party that induce this way of being.

I have no time for any ANC or ANCYL member or anyone whom has anything to do with it - and don't start the BS "not everyone is the same" WELL then if you different why you still with them???

"The fees are high but there are students who are in equally bad situations who have worked hard for bursaries or have taken out a student loans to try and pay the moneys."

Exactly!!
 
I don't know... I've witnessed so many people waste their time at university, ultimately wasting someone else's time and money.

University is not a necessity, I wouldn't call it a privilege either. It's education in a form that some people are well suited to, and others (a majority) aren't. The decision to go to university should ultimately not be made lightly. The various barriers that exist can be easily overcome by those that will likely succeed in a university, and if the barriers cannot be overcome then the probability is that the student is looking in the wrong place.
 
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