1. Statement by Member of Senate, Suraj Yengde, Post graduate
Students Representative on ‘Wits Fee Must Fall Campaign’ to the Post Graduate
Association
19th
October, 2015
University as a learning institution cannot deprive any student of his/her right to a quality -
accessible education. By increasing fees and delving upon the evidences of showing us
financial sheets, the university is playing the tactics of colonial era management - which was
to exclude the marginalised and majority - black students.
The people in the council are capital owners in South Africa who have guarded their fort on
the exploitation of the other. The idea of a council chair being a private company manager is
itself a problematic norm. People like these work on the notion of charity - who amass wealth
on immorality and then later try to whisk off their wrong doing by being a 'charitable' persona
– the ego of the ‘wealthy’.
University is no one's private property and no single person can dictate what needs to
be/must done. The democratic foundation should be rule of the day.
- I suggest we stand firm to the idea of equal and accessible education to all.
- Strongly condemn the use of force and alike machineries that threaten students. University
should be a space of free flowing ideas - no uniform should be distorting our eye on the
university campus.
- Wits must apologise for all the havoc caused.
- In-sourcing of workers who are equal victims of the university bullying policies should be
incorporated into the fair wage.
- Our call for action cry should be - "Non-exploitation of Students and Workers at Wits." We
should embolden the workers struggle with the students. For students struggle is no struggle
without magnifying the workers too.
A luta continua
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