JOHANNESBURG. — Minister of higher education Blade Nzimande lashed out at student leaders accusing them of going back on their word when they disrupted a higher education summit earlier yesterday afternoon.“You keep on shifting the goalpost all the time because you don’t want us to have a proper engagement. I want people to know that last year you agreed on a maximum 6 percent increase. Then we were all supposed to go out and convince our constituencies to accept that. The moment we left that meeting you never did that. You left me on my own, thrown under a bus,” he said.
Nzimande said student leaders had also agreed with the ministry on the resolutions taken for the year 2017.
“We agreed with you, now you come back saying what you are saying. You are not playing a fair game, in the process you are gambling with the future of the majority of students in this country.”
Student leaders disrupted proceedings demanding that President Jacob Zuma comes back to the summit.President Zuma had earlier delivered a keynote address asking students to return to class.
Student leaders attending a higher education summit disrupted proceedings and called for the President to heed their concerns.Student representative council leaders from different universities stood up and raised their hands asking to be acknowledged as the business leaders began addressing the summit.
Student leaders stood up saying they wanted President Zuma to come back to the summit following his opening address earlier. They said they were not interested in engaging with stakeholders who did not have any decision-making powers.
Deputy Higher Education Minister Mduduzi Manana stood up and tried to calm them down by saying he would give them an opportunity to speak, however the students were not interested.
They began singing “Asinamali (We don’t have money)”.Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande left shortly afterwards, followed by Public Works and Police Ministers Thulas Nxesi and Nathi Nhleko.Minutes later, Nzimande returned to the meeting room and reprimanded the students.The summit was being held at Emperor’s Palace on the East Rand in the wake of nationwide protests across the country where university students were calling for free higher education.
“This is a fundamental case in point of how much we are undermined as students. You have ANC Mondays and you have a country burning but you would take ANC Monday (at the) expense of you engaging the students,” a student leader stood up and said.
“When you should be engaging with student leaders who are in charge of this movement, you go to an ANC Monday. This is the kind of arrogance that is perpetuating the violence we see in our country.”
With a show of hands, the students expressed their demand that Nzimande call President Zuma back.
They said they had engaged with Nzimande and he had indicated that some of these matters were above him.Nzimande denied this and said the students were grandstanding because of the media.
Meanwhile, protesters outside the University of Cape Town law faculty have accused security guards of racially profiling students after they were barred from entering the building yesterday.
“What’s the difference between a student and a protester?” a student leader asked someone from the faculty.Protesting students claimed that white students had been allowed to attend a lecture inside, while black students were locked outside.
They demanded to speak to the dean.Two staff members told the crowd that the dean was in a meeting and could not speak to them.They urged the protesters to set up a meeting with the dean at a later stage.
Someone in the crowd muttered that it was ironic that the law department was pulling an “illegal” move by keeping out paying students.“Why is it acceptable to continue lectures when you know there are black students outside?” another asked, shaking her head.
The group planned to move from the middle campus back to the upper campus to ensure lectures did not take place.
— News24.