EXPRESS:Students go on rampage
Aug 01 2007 02:07:49:980PM  - (SA)  
Jabulani Dlamini

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The ugly face of apartheid seems to be making a comeback, at least at the Central University of Technology’s (CUT) main campus in Bloemfontein.

This after students went on a rampage and destroyed property on the main campus following their allegation that the Afrikaans speaking students on the campus are given preferential treatment with lectures and tests being given in Afrikaans.

Among the other issues that students were upset about was the proposed increase in tuition and hostel fees in 2008.

According to the protesting students, the institution has proposed a 10% increase in hostel fees, as well as a 7% increase in tuition fees.

Kabelo Motsiane, Student Re-presentative Council (SRC) president, said they would also like the institution to make public the contents of the Phosa commission’s report.

Motsiane said the commission was tasked with investigating corruption and other related issues by the management of the institution.

He said as he had not seen the report, he could not comment on the allegations that the report contained some evidence of fake professorships being awarded to individuals despite the lack of qualifications   by   those   indivi-duals.

“Classes are continuing, although slowly, on the main campus. The Welkom campus has a higher     percentage     of     absen-teeism,” Motsiane said.

A total of 37 students were arrested on Thursday during the protests and charged with public violence and contravening the gatherings act.

A total of nine students were released the same day on a warning and the rest were released on Friday. They will all appear in court on August 31.

Mardi Delport, assistant director of media and communication at the CUT, said a nine hour meeting was held on Saturday regarding the proposed increases for 2008 and another meeting would be held today.

Delport said the Phosa report was released more than a year ago, but only to members of the institution’s council as they had commissioned it.

She said it had not been made public, because it dealt with things that had happened in the past and thus the majority of students was not imfluenced.

“Some information in the report has no value in terms of teaching and learning and thus there was no need to make it pu-blic,” she said.

She said the reason for the increases, which were still only proposals at that stage, were to counter inflation.

“The language policy is currently under review, but the language of instruction remains English with Afrikaans and Sesotho used only when necessary,” she added.

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