Student protest at UWC
UWC students taken out of classes by students representatives and affiliated political organisations. Picture Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus UWC students taken out of classes by students representatives and affiliated political organisations. Picture Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus
The first day of classes at the University of Western Cape (UWC) was disrupted on Monday as students embarked on a protest, demanding accommodation, debt clearance and course registration.
The Student Representative Council (SRC) and other student organisations marched to classes, calling on students to gather for a meeting.
UWC SRC chairperson Sasha Douglas said clearance and registration for 2020 has been delayed by Student Credit Management’s (SCM) insistence to refuse bulk clearance of students.
“The SRC rejects the SCM process of clearance, which requires that students pay 30% of their debt, pay registration and enter into a monthly debit order agreement with the university in order for them to be cleared for registration,”
Douglas said.
Douglas said the most recent update they received stated that “registration is at a mere 17 000, which means at least 9 000 students were not yet registered”.
“It is for this reason that we have called for the academic programme to be delayed by one week as to ensure that all students have an equal opportunity to be cleared and registered,” she said.
ISSUE: 9 000 students not registered
She said in terms of accommodation the situation on campus was painful.
Students were sleeping in the student centre and in TV rooms “due to UWC’s continuous failure to provide accommodation for them”.
UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder said the protest came as a surprise as SRC members were sensitised to the problem of accommodation.
“On Friday, the SRC accompanied the Private Accommodation Sub-committee - which includes SRC and Central Housing Committee leadership - to the newly
acquired residential spaces for students,” he said.
“On Friday, the SRC and CHC leadership indicated their satisfaction with the new spaces - provided there was an agreement on the finer details of their demands.”
ISSUE: 9 000 students not registered
He said the university secured 766 bed spaces and as of yesterday, that number increased to 815.
“Students will receive a communication from UWC’s Residential Services shortly about the process to move to alternative accommodation that has been secured off
campus,” said Abarder.
“The move will commence as soon as the logistical arrangements have been confirmed, beginning with those qualifying students that resided at South Point.”