The weeklong protest by hundreds of Wits University students has been put on hold for 24 hours, suspended SRC president Aphiwe Mnyamana said on Wednesday.
The move will allow student leaders and university management to negotiate, according to Mnyamana, who said the request came from Zeblon Vilakazi, the vice-chancellor.
“We can only cease fire upon them meeting our demands. So at the current moment, we are going to table that we will cease fire only for a period of 24 hours,” Mnyamana said.
“However, with the conditions that we are going to propose, we do wish to note that our ceasing of fire is also time-based.
“It does not mean that when we cease fire at this point, we are done with the protest.”
Mnyamana was suspended by university management on Monday on allegations of serious misconduct and failing to appear at a hearing.
However, he wrote on Twitter following his suspension: “Immediately after I received the suspension order, I did notify @WitsUniversity that I’m in no position to attend the hearing, they must postpone the hearing to today, however, because they have something to hide, they ignored my request and decided to persecute me without trial.”
The students said should the university management fail to adhere to their demands, they are willing to pick up from where they left and go back to the streets again.
Among other things, the SRC demands that all students who were registered in 2022 and are academically eligible to return to campus should be allowed to register for the 2023 academic year, including part-time and occasional students.
In a letter addressed to Vilakazi and the university’s senior executive team on Tuesday, the Wits Student Forum condemned suspensions of Mnyamana and other members of the SRC.
The forum likened the suspensions to tactics to silence, threaten and intimidate student leaders for exercising their democratic right to represent and protect students.
For more education news from Sunday World, click here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here
