Students vow to continue strike
2005-02-16 08:48
Pretoria - Students at Tshwane University of Technology's Ga-Rankuwa campus have vowed to "double their efforts" in ensuring their demands were met, said the Student Representative Council on Tuesday.
This follows Tuesday's protest at which about 1 000 students used burning tyres to prevent lecturers from entering the university premises.
They were protesting against a recently announced six-percent fee increase.
Lecturers were allowed on campus only if they didn't come in with their cars.
At 14:00 on Tuesday afternoon, student representatives and the university management were supposed to hold a meeting to resolve the issue.
The meeting was postponed until further notice.
SRC wants management council
Willa de Ruyter of the TUT said: "This was after the SRC demanded the presence of the media and unions at the meeting. We decided to postpone the meeting to a later date."
SRC president Philane Hlatshwayo said the meeting was postponed because they asked for the presence of the executive management council.
Hlatshwayo said: "As the SRC, we felt the meeting was not well attended.
"We wanted the executive management council to be there because they have a tendency of not attending these meetings and then overruling decisions made."
He said they wanted the media and the union to be present as witnesses so that management would not turn back on their word.
Hlatshwayo said that until this was done, they "will continue doubling efforts to ensure that our demands are met".
He said: "On Wednesday, we won't even allow lecturers on campus. That's how serious we are."
Students demand tight security
However, the university said in a news release "the campus will be open for lectures" on Wednesday.
Among the students' demands is that security on campus is tightened up after a number of cellphone thefts at the students' hostels.
Last year, students held a similar protest on campus, trashing lecture halls and setting fire to three of them. They also held lecturers hostage.
De Ruyter said no vandalism took place on Tuesday. She said it was difficult to say whether the same students were involved in Tuesday's protest.
She said the students handed a memorandum of their grievances to university management on Monday.
- SAPA