‘Violent protests are the solution’

FROM burning vehicles to destroying buildings, recent student protests have caused extensive damage to infrastructure and resulted in financial losses in many tertiary institutions in Durban.

Professor Marcus Ramogale, the vice-chancellor and acting principal of the Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) in uMlazi, said exams and lectures were suspended last week because of a student protest.

“The unrest began on Monday, June 13, when a group of masked students disrupted first-semester examinations, demanding, among other things, the postponement of these examinations in order to have study time of several days.

“In its meeting held the same day, management conceded to the demand and postponed the commencement of examinations to June 17. Just before the start of these examinations, a small group of students tried to rally others to cause disruption again, but they received no support,” Ramogale said.

“At around 5am on Thursday, June 23, a violent student protest erupted on the main campus. A group of about 30 students, some with their faces covered, started pelting security personnel at the main entrance with stones. The security personnel scattered.”

Ramogale said the protesters were carrying several 5-litre containers of sanitiser, which they used to torch university buildings and two vehicles.

He said security then contacted the SAPS in uMlazi for assistance.

“The eThekwini Fire Department was also called. An investigation began soon after the arrival of police and additional security. It has since been established that MUT and non-MUT students were involved.”

Ramogale said the total damage was estimated to be more than R2 million.

“The assessment of damage to property is currently in progress and so far we have established the following:

The main entrance to the university and the guardroom were set alight. A bakkie and a sedan were burnt. The windows of a university 22-seater bus were broken.

Part of the protection services building was set alight.

There was an unsuccessful attempt to burn the examinations office.

Windows and glass doors to the west wing of the administration building were broken.

Windows at the academic affairs offices were broken.

The glass door to the senate chamber area was broken.

Several buildings on the north campus were damaged.

Several refrigerators and mobile toilets were burnt.

The university has opened a case of trespassing, arson and damage to property.

“A total of 22 MUT students have been identified and positively linked to the planning and execution of destruction of university property.”

The students were suspended. Many were arrested and face possible criminal charges. Others are on the run.

He said four of those involved are current student representative council (SRC) members, with another being a former MUT SRC president.

Ramogale said there were also hired students: two from the University of Zululand, one from Unisa and one from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).

He said the students were aggrieved for not getting their National Student

Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) allowances.

“The bone of contention at MUT is the payment of allowances to students not confirmed by Nsfas for funding. The SRC wants management to pay these allowances in spite of the fact that there is no confirmation from Nsfas.

“We have explained that such payment would be irregular as there would be no basis for it. These student leaders have resorted to violence with the hope that management will succumb. However, their plan has backfired and there is outrage at the destruction of much-needed infrastructure.”

Ramogale encouraged students to follow the proper channels to express their grievances

“The university supports the constitutional right to protest when such a right is exercised within the confines of the law and in a manner that does not infringe on the rights of others.

“It is unfortunate that this incident infringed on the rights of those students who were scheduled to write their examinations, threatened the lives of security personnel, damaged university property and infringed on the freedom of movement.”

A final year civil engineering student, who declined to be named, said that violence was the only language the university management understood.

“MUT does not care about students. When written communication of grievances is given, we get no results.”

He said that students were justified in protesting.

“Students have been waiting for their Nsfas allowances for three months. This is why we feel like violent protests are the only solution. We tried all possible means and were not heard.

“We submitted memoranda more than once and still it seems there is a lack of willingness to pay us our allowances. Instead, the university is subjecting all those who raise their voice, to unnecessary suspensions. It is sad.”

Meanwhile, Sphume Zuma, the EFF students’ command spokesperson at UKZN's Westville campus, said students showed solidarity with the cleaning staff when they protested on June 13 and 14.

“They are asking for medical aid and salary increments that were promised to them years ago. This is why we protested.”

Zuma said having no cleaning staff had directly affected students, especially during the exams.

“We need all our cleaners reinstated. That’s why we emptied bin bags on the road and burned things. That seems to be the only way to get the attention of management.”

She said the burning and destruction were a reflection of how students felt about the structures at the institution.

Zuma said expressing grievances through written means was ineffective.

“We have held meetings before when we had grievances as students. We have petitioned and written emails and nothing has been done. In this case, our cleaning staff had handed a memorandum of their grievances and were unfairly suspended. I mean, that just shows you how the management of UKZN is.”

She also said violence was the only language management understood.

A final year medical student at UKZN, who also declined to be named, said he did not condone violence but understood the students’ frustration.

“I do not agree with violent protests and intimidation of our colleagues as well as the destruction of property. I feel that it damages the integrity of the movement and poisons the struggle.”

He said students often resorted to violent protests when all other channels had been exhausted.

“What I have come to see is how arrogant management is and also how they treat student issues with no care whatsoever.

“There is little done to meet students halfway and most often the university seeks to divide students and bring protests to a swift end rather than address the situation at hand.

“It has been like that for a long time. I’ve seen this throughout my six years in medical school and it’s the same cycle over and over again.”

He said there was a possible connection between the current student protests and protests during the liberation Struggle.

“I think students have been conditioned, almost like a legacy of sorts, that protesting requires violence. It’s almost like that was inherited from the previous generation which used to protest during apartheid.

“Even the way students model and refer to student issues as the struggle, with statements from student leaders often ending in Aluta Continua, which means ‘the struggle continues’."

He said protesting through violence was entrenched in South Africa.

Normah Zondo, UKZN spokesperson and executive director of corporate relations, said two tractors and a container were reportedly destroyed at the Edgewood campus, while property was also destroyed at the Westville campus.

She said that risk management services, a university-appointed private security as well as the police were present during the protests.

“University management condemns any criminal conduct, which includes the damage to property and threats to staff and students,” said Zondo.

Professor Evangelos Mantzaris, who has a PhD in sociology and is a retired management sciences professor at MUT, said there were various factors that contributed to violent student protests.

“The roots of such events are everyday realities facing the students and their leaderships in terms of teaching and learning, accommodation, the direct and indirect involvement of existing political parties, existing infrastructure and facilities, and the relationships among student leadership belonging to different parties and groups.

“An academic perspective on its own is a short part of the roots and foundations of such protests.

“The more one tries to dissect the existing and especially the future roots, the more complicated it becomes. This is

because the vast majority of students are strongly politicised in the wider sense of the world, its meaning and realities.”

Mantzaris said any connection between student protests of today and the liberation Struggle was coincidental.

“It was an extremely different situation when students throughout the country left their universities to join Umkhonto or Apla outside and inside the country, and Azapo inside the country.

“The foundations of today’s violence are rooted in existing material, social, political, institutional, provincial, municipal, academic, leadership-based, economic and financial realities.”

Mantzaris said that a key question was whether violent protests could be attributed to the way a student was raised.

“A significant number, if not the majority, of students at universities throughout the country, have been brought up in poor and marginalised conditions.

“Their entrance to higher institution entities opens the doors of a better future for them.

“Their successful absorption into the new environment of learning and teaching is in the hands of university leadership, academics and administrators.

“My belief and understanding of the existing situation are that despite the fact that the vast majority of students do not and will not forget the years of their upbringing, the violent student protests are the outcomes of existing realities.”