Wits students protest over tuition fee increase

Space_Chief said:
It's not a student protest. There are crime vs policing vs vigilante justice issues in Masiphumelele.
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yea the students were clearly briefed that the protests must stay peaceful... it's all the tag alongs and EFF and ANC supporters who aren't students who are being violent.
 
ghostR said:
yea the students were clearly briefed that the protests must stay peaceful... it's all the tag alongs and EFF and ANC supporters who aren't students who are being violent.
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The video clips showing students messing with their fellow students posted several days ago paint a different picture.
 
Ok so this is what happened today from where I was standing from the time we got to Pretoria.

We got there and while we were on the buses a group of about 8 people stopped our bus and got on. We as students complained saying if you don't have a wits student card, you cannot get on. Non the less they refused to get off. So we let it go and the bus kept going.

When we reached some traffic with people seemingly also going to the union buildings, they started banging on our bus saying we should walk like everybody else. Of those people one was carrying a tyre. We asked him through the window why he was carrying a tyre. Question was ignored and they got bored and kept going. We got to where the buses were supposed to be parked and waited there for more Wits students to come.

When we thought everyone was there. We started walking towards the union buildings and singing. Then we waited again when it turned out that not everyone was there.

When the peopleo got there we kept walking. Then we got close to the union buildings, started seeing smoke and we knew this was gonna be a disaster. There was a bit of a scare and people almost started running back but on careful inspection, it turned out to be just a balloon floating in the air.

We got a little closer to the union buildings and not sure what happened but again people started running (so I ran too) and that also turned out to be a false alarm.

A moment later there was a sudden lift off of birds from the trees in the UB lawns and we were "oh shyte" (always watch the birds). We stood outside the gate for a while and we realised that whatever was going on in there wasn't letting up, we kept going.

It seems like there was a bit of confusion with the instruction people got. Some got "go back yo the buses", some got keep walking. I and two of my friends were in the keep walking group. Two other friends were in the bus group.

Anyway, as we kept walking, we saw our student leaders approaching us with other students (seems we left more people than we thought). So we waited for them and then we kept walking when they got to us.

We walked till we got to an intersection where we felt was far enough from the commotion. We sat there. When two ambulances passed us we knew that things were bad. We sat there until we couldn't hear anything that sounded remotely dangerous.

To be continued...
 
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Thanks for the feedback sammyD, how many magic mushrooms does it take to convert a balloon into smoke? :D :p
 
SammyD said:
Ok so this is what happened today from where I was standing from the time we got to Pretoria.

We got there and while we were on the buses a group of about 8 people stopped our bus and got on. We as students complained saying if you don't have a wits student card, you cannot get on. Non the less they refused to get off. So we let it go and the bus kept going. When we reached some traffic with people seemingly also going to the union buildings, they started banging on our bus saying we should walk like everybody else. Of those people one was carrying a tyre. We asked him through the window why he was carrying a tyre. Question was ignored and they got bored and kept going. We got to where the buses were supposed to be parked and waited there for more Wits students to come. When we thought everyone was there. We started walking towards the union buildings and singing. Then we waited again when it turned out that not everyone was there. When the peopleo got there we kept walking. Then we got close to the union buildings, started seeing smoke and we knew this was gonna be a disaster. There was a bit of a scare and people almost started running back but on careful inspection, it turned out to be just a balloon floating in the air. We got a little closer to the union buildings and not sure what happened but again people started running (so I ran too) and that also turned out to be a false alarm. A moment later there was a sudden lift off of birds from the trees in the UB lawns and we were "oh shyte" (always watch the birds). We stood outside the gate for a while and we realised that whatever was going on in there wasn't letting up, we kept going. It seems like there was a bit of confusion with the instruction people got. Some got "go back yo the buses", some got keep walking. I and two of my friends were in the keep walking group. Two other friends were in the bus group. Anyway, as we kept walking, we saw our student leaders approaching us with other students (seems we left more people than we thought). So we waited for them and then we kept walking when they got to us. We walked till we got to an intersection where we felt was far enough from the commotion. We sat there. When two ambulances passed us we knew that things were bad. We sat there until we couldn't hear anything that sounded remotely dangerous. To be continued...
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Good story. Why did you ignore all the warning signs when it was there? Are you not in care of your own health and safety? You do know that the human mobile body is your most valuable asset on earth?
 
We started walking back but when we got to the gates we didn't go in. Instead we walked passed and went round until we got to where the buses were parked. One of my friends decided nope, they're going back into the bus (not a fan of walking).

So it was just me and my other friend. Unbeknownst to us, the other two who had gotten the bus instruction got of the bus and joined the march. We walked back to the UB and walked passed the back again and we entered the gate singing.

As we were getting into the gate, I decided to check twitter and found out that we'd just gotten the 0% we wanted. I told my friend.

We got to a point where we stopped walking and were just singing (Where we saw the "Wits ran away" placard somewhere on the other side of student leadership).

Mcebo started speaking and told those who didn't know yet that #FeesHave Fallen. There were cheers and next thing we know there was a gun shot and everyone started running.

Mcebo shouted "Wits don't run!"

After we heard him my friend and I slowed down and turned started to turn back. That was when we saw the teargas canisters flying. I ran like I never ran in my life before.

When we seemed to be in the clear,y friend stopped to take a breath but turned to me and said "Sam keep running, if things get bad again, I will leave you". I'm fairly short so my legs can't take me very far and all my friend is very tall and takes large steps. So I kept going.

As I was going back to the bus I overheard two people talking with one saying "these people are crazy. They get R1000 and we get R500 anyway." I didn't know what they were talking about until later.

I kept going till I reached the bus. When I get there only one of my friends are there, the one who stopped during the march. I didn't notice the missing two at first (was traumatised).

I told the one who was there what had just happened. About 5 minutes later the friend who told me to keep running walked onto the bus. Said that he and another guy were walking and were right and thought they were fairly safe since they were almost by the buses only to find that the police were following students and they fired more gas canisters and firing rubber bullets. Came in and was like "guys thought I was gonna die".

Then the "walkphobia" friend asks "where's the other two?". The other friend poinst to the seats behind us and they were there. Walkphobia asked if they'd just walked in with "Run Sam" and they said no. They'd just come after.

To be continued again...
 
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The Vice-Chancellors and Chairs of Council represented through Universities South Africa today presented the following proposals to the joint meeting hosted by the Presidency at the Union Buildings in Pretoria:

1. All parties should collectively commit to a zero percent (0%) increase for 2016, with government stepping in to make up the difference.

2. Universities will independently commit to deliberate on their expenditure and make immediate efficiency gains.

3. The Presidential Task Team that was established will deliberate and attend to the plight of students in debt and increase funding for financial aid.

4. The immediate establishment of a commission to look at the restructuring of the entire system, including fee increases, subsidy and cost drivers and historical inequality, including infrastructure renewal.

5. The medium-term goal is to ensure that all students in need have free access to a quality higher education.

6. The establishment of a separate commission to address the challenge of outsourcing to allow universities to reaffirm our broad commitment to ethical standards.

7. In return, students are to resume all academic activities immediately and complete their examinations. Each university will determine an examination extension that is appropriate to its circumstances.

8. All parties are to commit to peaceful interaction, non-violence and to refrain from engagement in the politics of humiliation.

The meeting lasted several hours and after intense debate and deliberation between all stakeholders, President Zuma, in a televised address to the nation, made the following announcement:

1. There would be a zero percent (0%) increase in fees for 2016.

2. University Vice-Chancellors will extend the time for the examinations period to compensate for time lost.

3. Long-term issues to be addressed include free education, institutional autonomy, racism, and what students call “black debt”.

4. The Presidential Task Team that has been established to address funding mechanisms will be broadened to look at all these and broader transformation issues affecting higher education.

5. There will be an attempt by government to ensure that all students arrested will not be charged.
 
rpm said:
1. All parties should collectively commit to a zero percent (0%) increase for 2016, with government stepping in to make up the difference.

2. Universities will independently commit to deliberate on their expenditure and make immediate efficiency gains.
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"Government stepping in" in (1) is rather vague while (2) seems like a euphemism for "austerity measures".
 
Humberto said:
"Government stepping in" in (1) is rather vague while (2) seems like a euphemism for "austerity measures".
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+1
That is what I was waiting for, where exactly the money would come from. Spent half an hour in front of the TV waiting on him and then hear nothing about the source.
@rpm's option number 5: use of the word attempt. They can try but doesn't mean they have to actually do it. Lovely wording.
 
They said they were right in front when Mcebo was making his speech and when everyone started running one of their caps fell and they found themselves looking for the cap (strange but true). Not long after, they found themselves as the only two there with a ring of gas canisters around them.

Then the next thing they know, they have TUT students throwing rocks at them. They managed to hop scotch until they were fairly safe.

They got back to the buses. Everyone got on the buses and we were ready to go. Then TUT started. When buses tried to leave they were like "Wits is not going anywhere".

When we realised that they weren't letting up, we asked them why they won't let us through which was when they told us they weren't gonna die for us. We were like "nobody asked you to die for us. If you weren't causing havoc you wouldn't be doing any dying at all".

So we sat there until this girl called a TUT student and asked why they were protesting. We got what we wanted so what were they doing. This guy said they were protesting because NSFAS money for groceries etc was decreasing from R1000 to R500. So we left it and just sat there.

Next thing our bus marshal came in and tells us that TUT students went into the bus parked in front of ours and told them that if we don't all get off the buses, they were gonna burn them.

People started panicking wanting to get off. The bus marshals tried to calm everyone down saying we were safer in the buses than outside. Someone threw something that was burning under our bus but it quickly burned out so it wasn't given much attention.

After a while someone came onto our bus and said the bus in front of us (was the first one) was on fire. People started freaking out wanting to get off the bus immediately. We got off and the bus marshals told to run behind the buses and were emptying all the buses.

Someone else asked a TUT student who was running with beer looted from the bottle store why they were doing this and he said "TUT started complaining about fees a long time ago and were ignored but everyone listens bcos its Wits
 
The bus drivers started reversing the buses and getting them out of the area. We got on and we're got back. So yeah, that was my day.
 
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