Johannesburg - Striking Wits University students who on Sunday marched to the house of the university’s vice-chancellor, Zeblon Vilakazi, have vowed to continue their protest until their demands against academic exclusion are met.
The students continued their protest amid threats of legal action by the university.
On Monday, the university’s Student Representative Council (SRC) announced it had acquired the legal support of Mabuza Attorneys, led by advocate Dali Mpofu, who will be representing their members against the institution, which has taken some of the student leaders to court.
This comes after the SRC revealed that they had received a letter indicating that they were being sued by the institution. The university released a statement on Thursday claiming that it had issued multiple suspension orders to disruptors who transgressed the university’s rules.
The university has accused some of the student leaders of interrupting some lectures at the Wits main campus in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Wits SRC president Aphiwe Mnyamana said they had consulted their lawyers about the letter.
“As the SRC, we had lengthy consultations with our legal team, Mabuza Attorneys, led by the representation of advocate Dali Mpofu. The SRC is thus committed to protecting all student leaders implicated in the university’s intimidation efforts through ENS (law firm), which the university claimed not to have been legal action against the SRC, which is deemed in the same breath as all other propaganda narratives that have been continuously spread by the university’s senior executive team,” Mnyamana said.
He said their legal team would respond to the university’s demands before the end of the week.
“We continuously affirm and urge the student population to continuously stand firm in the ongoing Wits Shutdown so as to ensure all demands are met,” he said.
At the weekend, Myamana said the SRC learnt on their way to a meeting that the university was suing some of its members following incidents of disturbances on the campus.
Despite a weekend spent in meetings between student leaders and the university’s management, students have rejected some of the concessions made by the university, with SRC member Thato Lebitso saying these were minor concessions that did not make significant changes to the plight of students who were still without accommodation and had yet to be registered weeks into the academic calendar.
“The university has acceded to some of our demands. However, they’ve chosen very small, very insignificant demands and said to students that 'see, we are trying to meet the SRC halfway’ and if we continue to protest, then we are an unreasonable SRC,” Lebitso said.
The Star