Wits students protest over tuition fee increase

OrbitalDawn said:
For what purpose? To make far reaching commercial and operational decisions under threat of intimidation?
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Who's threatening anyone? Someone even made a joke that he's a dad who just happens to have thousands of kids and is spending time with the family before he goes wherever he has to go. Prof Crouch said straight out "No" when a student representative asked him to do something. Is he not sitting (in perfect health) next to Habib as we speak ? Dr Carolissen has to be here for obvious reasons (no meeting without him). Prof. Habib has to be here because he's part of the Exco council.
 
SammyD said:
There is absolutely nothing in this world that p**ses me off than someone who uses the word "retarded" to insult another person. Someone out there has that disability; a hardship they have to live with every single day and you're taking it and making a joke out of it. It's just not on.
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Retarded is an acceptable albeit slang word.

retarded

very foolish or stupid.
"in retrospect, it was a totally retarded idea"
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On the other hand, calling a non-impaired person a retard is indeed not on.
 
SammyD said:
Who's threatening anyone? Someone even made a joke that he's a dad who just happens to have thousands of kids and is spending time with the family before he goes wherever he has to go. Prof Crouch said straight out "No" when a student representative asked him to do something. Is he not sitting (in perfect health) next to Habib as we speak ? Dr Carolissen has to be here for obvious reasons (no meeting without him). Prof. Habib has to be here because he's part of the Exco council.
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Did they stop people from leaving campus by asking nicely?
 
Randall is a friend of mine, if its the same Randall with a Phd in physics
 
I remember when I was at wits and some comrades tried to disrupt one of our lectures , they got thrown out good and proper and told we are learning, one the proudest moments I ever had at wits :)
 
Wits students pepper sprayed

Lizeka Tandwa, News24

Johannesburg - The Wits University student protest has turned ugly as students and the Dean of Students were pepper sprayed by campus security while waiting to hear from the university's council on Friday evening.

SRC sub-committee council member, Ezra Karim said while students gathered on campus grounds waiting to hear the outcome of the meeting with University council members, she heard screams coming from the opposite end of the campus as students were pepper sprayed by security.

"We did nothing to provoke security," said Karim.

Karim said all the students affected were "relatively okay", except for one who had been sprayed directly in the eye.

"We want to know who authorised this and why they needed to have extra security. This effort to intimidate us will not deter us from our mission," said Karim.

Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel said the security guards acted independently. She said Vice Chancellor Adam Habib was appalled by the incident. She said he had taken it up with the security.

"Even the Dean of Students Dr Pamela Dube was pepper sprayed. One of the Exco council members asked for additional security to escort him. One of the campus security guards felt threatened and pepper sprayed students. We have asked him to leave and the meeting with the students will go on as planned," said Patel.

News24
Source
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Wits-students-pepper-sprayed-20151016
 
Habib is effectively being held hostage (the students will deny this, but realistically, can he leave?), and having so many students crammed into the Concourse, sitting on the stairs etc. is really not safe.
 
Wits students reject council meeting

Thomas Hartleb, News24

Johannesburg – A proposal by Wits University’s council chairperson that students' demands for no fee increase be discussed on Saturday was met with shouts of disapproval.

“This level of decision making that you are asking me, I cannot do it on my own,” Randall Carolissen told hundreds of students at the Senate House Concourse, on the East Campus in Braamfontein, around 20:00 on Friday evening.

His statement was met with shouting.

“I will commit to you that we are going to have a council meeting first thing tomorrow morning,” he said, to more shouts of disapproval.

Carolissen, Wits Vice Chancellor Adam Habib, and three other university officials were seated at a table, surrounded by singing and shouting students.

Students wanted their demands to be met there and then. They are demanding that fees not be increased by 10.5% next year.

They had been protesting against the increase since Wednesday. They blocked exits, prevented people from entering and leaving, and caused lectures to be suspended.

“We are not asking for much,” former SRC president Mcebo Dlamini told students.

Carolissen objected to the way the protesters had been holding members of staff on campus against their will.

“Wits students have a right to protest. But if we have a situation where we have people trapped on campus and their kids are alone at home, we cannot have that.”

He said the institution’s leadership was taking their demands seriously.


News24
Source
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Wits-students-reject-council-meeting-20151016
 
Wow, they initially even tried to prevent Habib from going to the bathroom.
 
How can they call themselves "peaceful" when they are effectively resorting to hostage taking.

Like all good little communists, hypocrisy is rife.
 
schumi said:
Does not seem like they are held hostage https://www.periscope.tv/w/1lPKqNRDvwwGb
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Source
I am aware that many staff members were affected in multiple ways during the student protests that took place in the last two days. We are aware that students have started protesting again this morning and have blocked some entrances. The Senior Executive Team and I are working to clear these entrances.

I have had reports of intimidation, the vandalism of vehicles, altercations involving staff and students and more generally a frustration at not being able to move freely on campus.

I would like to personally apologise to each and every one who was affected by the protest. The illegal protest was a violation of your rights as staff members of the University and as citizens of this country. Your safety and security is paramount and we will do whatever is in our power to ensure that you remain safe and sound.
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Management didn't want to escalate it and get the police involved, but the tactic is the same.
A hostage is a person or entity which is held by one of two belligerent parties to the other or seized as security for the carrying out of an agreement.
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konfab said:
Source


Management didn't want to escalate it and get the police involved, but the tactic is the same.
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I thought you were referring to this current sit in at the senate and whether the vice chancellor and council members are currently held hostage
 
No end in sight at Wits

Thomas Hartleb, News24

Johannesburg – There was no end in sight on Friday night to the deadlock between Wits University students and management over a fee increase.

Vice Chancellor Adam Habib, council chairperson Randall Carolissen and some of their colleagues were still in the Senate House Concourse on the East Campus with hundreds of students shortly before 23:00 on Friday, university spokesperson Shirona Patel said.

They were waiting for a council meeting to convene. Students were not allowing management to leave the concourse.

They wanted management to decide immediately to reverse decision to increase fees for 2016 by 10.5%.

“We will sit here till we get what we want,” former Students' Representative Council president Mcebo Dlamini told the students.

“This leadership here they have powers to issue an executive decision. This is an emergency,” he said.

“I can promise you whatever you want to hear, it will have no legal standing. It must go through council,” Carolissen said before he was shouted down earlier.

Patel said some council members were there, but not enough to make a quorum, so it was possible that a meeting would only take place on Saturday. The council had between 28 and 30 members from various bodies, including government and the private sector.

She said Habib and his colleagues had agreed to wait with the students for as long as possible, as trying to leave would make the situation more volatile.

Personal issues

Patel said two of the student leaders, former SRC president Mcebo Dlamini and EFF member Vuyani Pambo appeared to have personal issues with Habib. Earlier this year he suspened Pambo following violence during a meeting, and removed Mcebo as SRC president for his comments about Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Security and police had been briefed to wait outside the concourse, to avoid stoking tensions.

Patel said SRC president Nompendulo Mkhatshwa and his deputy Shaeera Kalla were nowhere to be found and appeared to have lost control of the students.

Both of them could not be reached by phone late on Friday.

Patel said what made the situation more complicated was that there were various groups, all with different demands and leaders. They included the EFF Wits Student Council, The Progressive Youth Alliance, and the All Residence Council.

Patel said at present there was no talk of asking Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande to get involved.

News24
Source
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/No-end-in-sight-at-Wits-20151016
 
Wits University suspends 10.5 percent fee hike

JOHANNESBURG – A deal has been struck between Wits University students and staff.

The university has suspended its fee hike, signalling a victory for students.

Protests at the institution continued late into the night, with hundreds of students demanding that a 10.5 percent increase be scrapped.

These students say it had to be done.

One woman says, “We’ve been speaking about these issues and they haven’t been taken seriously. For the first time in a long time, in post-apartheid South Africa, we’re becoming heroes in this struggle.”

One man says, “This thins is really an insult to our black parents. For the increment to be as it is, I don’t think my parents would even afford it. What’s happening now is revolutionary.”
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More at http://ewn.co.za/2015/10/17/Wits-University-suspends-10-point-5-percent-fee-hike

Picture of the agreement document http://ewn.co.za/-/media/80BC5BAEE8764012BFE028587B708C86.ashx
 
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