Habib ‘acted in bad faith’ by postponing General Assembly

Former Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) president Mcebo Dlamini accused vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib of acting in “bad faith” following the postponement of Friday’s General Assembly.

“The vice-chancellor acted in bad faith and even negotiated in bad faith. We wanted him to commit‚ and he’s not being honest when he says we wanted one demand which is free education‚” Dlamini said outside the Great Hall on Friday.

“We had separated the demands to internal and external... the external has nothing to do with Wits‚” added Dlamini.

His remarks came after the university said it was announcing the postponement “with deep regret” and said a “Council meeting will be called this weekend after which a way forward for the University will be determined”.

Dlamini said that an agreement had been reached on Thursday night to hold the General Assembly‚ and was surprised to hear Habib calling a media briefing to announce that it would be postponed.

Earlier on Friday‚ the university said: “We had reached consensus with all university constituencies including Council‚ Senate‚ Convocation‚ labour and staff‚ but not with the protesting students‚” it said in a statement.

The university statement on the postponement highlighted that: “One of the latest demands of the protesting students is that Wits and all other universities should be shut down until government agrees to free education.”