Three-week boycott forces WSU to shut two campuses

Walter Sisulu University vice-chancellor Rob Midgley closed the Mthatha and Buffalo City campuses as a three-week class boycott continued unabated on Wednesday.

Students at both campuses were protesting over the non-payments of allowances to NSFAS beneficiaries.

In separate e-mails addressed to the university community of both campuses, Midgley said, students at Mthatha and Buffalo City campuses had not been attending classes for over a week, “and there are no prospects that the situation will improve”.

Midgley said university activities had been disrupted and compromised and neither campus was a safe environment for proper academic activities.

“It is important that everyone involved is given time to reflect on the purpose of being at university and it is best to create the space for that to happen,” he said.

In a communiqué addressed to the Mthatha campus, Midgley wrote: “I hereby close the Mthatha campus, specifically Zamukulungisa and Nelson Mandela Drive sites, with immediate effect.”

The vice-chancellor said there would be no academic activities at either campus until the next term.

He said, with immediate effect, Mthatha and Buffalo City campuses would be on academic vacation and the university would reopen for the second term as scheduled on the calendar.

“Neither the university nor its employees would be held liable or responsible for the safety of any student who refuses to obey this instruction and remains on university premises,” he said.

Midgley requested staff to remain home until he advised them to return to work.

“Management will advise stakeholders of further developments at appropriate times,” he said.

The announcement came as student leaderships from all four campuses of the university were locked in a meeting in East London with WSU management.

SRC secretary at the Buffalo City campus Samkele Mqai said of the closures: “It is something we were expecting.”

Mqai said, at a meeting, they had demanded the university reveal the number of students the university claimed they had paid allowances to.

“As far as we know, the majority of students have not received their allowances,” he added.

SRC president at the Mthatha campus Zuko Mabhoza said even when they returned to campus when it re-opened, they would start where they left off with the protest.

“We will carry on until all students have received their allowances,” he said.