Durban - Durban University of Technology students had barely sat down for their first class when protest action by the SRC forced the suspension of the academic programme.
Spokesman for the university, Alan Khan, said vice-chancellor, Professor Ahmed Bawa, had decided to stop lectures for at least Monday and Tuesday after receiving a memorandum.
SRC deputy secretary, Zama Mncube, said their grievances, as set out in the memorandum, included financial and academic exclusion, registration fees and residence issues.
“Classes cannot continue until these issues are resolved,” Mncube said.
Khan said the suspension of the academic programme would give Bawa an opportunity to meet the SRC and “to agree on a way forward”.
Also among the demands was for security and cleaning staff to be employed directly by DUT, rather than through private companies contracted to the university.
Last week, 29 students, many part of the EFF Student Command, and cleaning and security staff were arrested after “gathering illegally” to demand a response to their own memorandum from Bawa.
At the time, Bawa had not engaged with them because the SRC had distanced itself from the EFF-led #OutsourcingMustFall gathering.
They were released on bail, but were all issued suspension letters or SMSes by their employers.
Others who were part of the gathering, but had not been arrested after the two police vans and micro-bus were full, were also suspended.
One of the security guards arrested and now suspended, is a 34-year-old man who asked not to be named for fear of being “further victimised”.
“I work Monday to Friday, 6am to 6pm… that’s a 12-hour shift, five times a week. Guess what I get paid? R3 400.”
The man said this January had been especially tough on him with his three children at school in the care of his parents in Richmond.
“I’m lucky if there is overtime, then it can be a bit more, that means I will take less from mashonisa (loan shark) that month, but I have to take every month to make ends meet.”
Besides caring for his children and family, the man pays rent at the uMlazi back room where he lives to be closer to work.
“Every day, I see students coming in and out of the DUT campus. Every year, I see many graduate and go on with the bright future. I can’t afford this kind of future for my children. They may never walk the corridors of DUT because I am living from hand to mouth.”
He said although the situation had not improved since he started working at the university in 2007, what was driving him to speak out now was learning the university paid his company so much more for his services than he received.
“It’s ridiculous. They take such a large portion because they provide us with the tools of the trade… this is no better than slave labour. We only want what is fair.”
He said he was prepared to risk his job to ensure that #OutsourcingMustFall – if not for him, then for “those who are too scared to fight for a living wage and for those who will be employed in future”.
Bawa last week said a task team was appointed to look into insourcing and would report back to the university council in June.
Khan said the university would remain open and the registration process would continue.
Daily News