Fee protests are set to resume at Rhodes today after high-level talks between management, staff, unions, and protesting students collapsed at the eleventh hour on Sunday night.
A last minute student demand that the university close its doors for the coming week seemed to scuppered the talks as well as an agreement carved out following days of intense negotiations.
In three days of almost non-stop talks the group worked through 13 student demands with students driving the university into making major concessions.
But, with a document drafted and an agreement ready to be signed, the students made their last-minute 14th demand for full closure of the university for another week – a demand Vice-Chancellor Dr Sizwe Mabizela said could never be agreed to. The students also refused to give any guarantee that protest action would not continue, no matter what concessions the university had made. They said to make such a guarantee could result in them acting in bad faith.
An exhausted looking Mabizela described the dissolution of the talks as tragic.
“We have been in negotiations since Friday morning. We have all made major concessions in the interest of the university and all stakeholders. It is a huge disappointment that it has effectively come to naught. That is tragic.”
He said the noble struggle for a free quality higher education for the poor and for a better funded public higher education system and the continuation of academic activities were not mutually exclusive.
He said if they did not continue the academic programme they would jeopardise the future of the current crop of students.
“We must ensure we have a successful completion of the academic year while at the same time pursuing the struggle alluded to. I appeal to our students and all those who would like to achieve the noble objectives of a free quality education for the poor …. to work together without imperiling our higher education system.”
He warned that the consequences of not completing the academic year were dire.
The university later said in a statement that all agreements hammered out over the past three days would immediately fall away. It also reiterated that the academic programme would continue today.
The falling away of agreements reached may hit some students hard. In one of many concessions, the university had agreed not to prosecute anyone who acted against the student disciplinary code in the context of the protest. The agreement also granted an academic amnesty to students whose Duly Performed requirements were missed as a result of the protest.
Last minute student demand collapses Rhodes talks
A last minute student demand that the university close its doors for the coming week seemed to scuppered the talks as well as an agreement carved out following days of intense negotiations.
“We have been in negotiations since Friday morning. We have all made major concessions in the interest of the university and all stakeholders. It is a huge disappointment that it has effectively come to naught. That is tragic.”
He said if they did not continue the academic programme they would jeopardise the future of the current crop of students.
“We must ensure we have a successful completion of the academic year while at the same time pursuing the struggle alluded to. I appeal to our students and all those who would like to achieve the noble objectives of a free quality education for the poor …. to work together without imperiling our higher education system.”
The university later said in a statement that all agreements hammered out over the past three days would immediately fall away. It also reiterated that the academic programme would continue today.
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