Walter Sisulu University is facing total shutdown across all campuses from today.
WSU teaching staff and workers are involved in a stand-off over wages with university management, which unionists claim will see no lectures taking place for any of the university’s 31000 students today.
They are demanding a salary increase of 8% while the university maintains it can afford no more than 6.3%. WSU responded to the announcement by beefing up its security personnel.
University spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo defended the presence of extra security on campuses, saying the move was procedural.
“Employees have the right to strike. The university therefore has the responsibility to keep all its employees safe,” said Tukwayo.
As many as 2000 employees took to the streets yesterday morning after wage negotiations collapsed.
Union leaders held gatherings on all four campuses to report on the stalemate and to declare a full-blown protected strike.
Hundreds of employees – workers, academics and administrative staff – were seen milling around outside the buildings at Eskom House in Buffalo Street, headquarters of WSU’s five Buffalo City campuses in East London, and at Heritage House in Cambridge Street, which is the heart of the arts and journalism campuses.
At 10am, a mass gathering was held in a lecture hall at Eskom House, from which media were barred from entering.
Staff were heard singing demands that Professor Rob Midgley be ousted from his post.
They are aggrieved that Midgley has stood his ground on the standard no-work, no-pay legal rule pertaining to all strikes in South Africa.
The Daily Dispatch saw security guards wearing bullet-proof vests, though they carried no weapons, watching the scene.
The crowd used their cellphones to record their presence.
“If the university can afford to pay for these guards, why can’t we get our increase,” shouted one employee.
Nehawu’s Mcebisi Jojo said workers had reported for duty at only one campus – Nelson Mandela Drive in Mthatha.
But he said they would join today’s strike.
He said the campus was not represented in the mass meeting that was held at the Ibika campus in Butterworth on Monday and as a result were not briefed.
 
Unions are repeating their call for the removal of Midgley.
Midgley took over the reins in 2016 from then interim vice-chancellor Professor Khaya Mfenyana, who had been in an acting position for some time.
Both Nehawu and the National Tertiary Education Union (Nteu) have been negotiating with management for the past four months over salary increases.
Last week the CCMA granted the two unions a certificate for a legal strike.
 
Jojo said they had written to Midgley advising him to resign.
He claimed Midgley did not have the best interests of the university at heart and that the wage negotiation process was indicative of his attitude.
“We hear that through the helpdesk the VC keeps reminding employees of the no-work no-pay policy, which we are already well aware of.
“We view this as intimidation and it does not depict an attitude of someone who wants to resolve issues.
“Until that changes, the strike is in full swing,” said Jojo...