SASCO – praag.org

Black students vow to render Wits ungovernable

Wits University vice-chancellor Professor Adam Habib has been given 48 hours to reinstate ousted Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) president Mcebo Dlamini or have the institution come to a standstill.

Wits students – among them the South African Students Congress (Sasco) and the student political party, the Progressive Youth Alliance – who took part in a march in support of Dlamini earlier this week, vowed that the university would be rendered ungovernable if Habib did not meet Friday’s deadline.

On Wednesday, a Wits Sasco member, who asked not to be named, said: “We give Adam Habib 48 hours to make sure that there is a review committee on Dlamini’s case. He needs to be reinstated.”

Dlamini also posted a number of similar remarks on his Facebook page and added: “Failure to do so (adhere to these demands) will ensure that Wits comes to a standstill.

“It has nothing to do with me as a person, but everything this institution stands for.”

About 250 students attended the march on Monday, all calling for Dlamini to be reinstated.

Sasco deputy provincial deputy secretary Joy Phiri said: “No vice-chancellor can tell us who our president is. Reinstate our president.”

The Star also spoke to Habib, who said the request to expedite the next sitting of the independent appeals and review committee had been received.

“The matter is now in the hands of the chairperson. Any decision regarding the reinstatement of Mr Mcebo Dlamini as SRC president will be determined by the finding of the committee,” he said.

Dlamini was removed as the SRC president last week after being found guilty of physically assaulting a senior member of university staff and verbally assaulting staff members via e-mail.

He was recently thrust into the media spotlight for his controversial “I love Hitler” Facebook posts, which gained national attention and criticism.

Haters determined to hunt down ‘racists’

Two white students photographed dressed up as black nannies for a private party, have been kicked out of their campus residence, the University of Pretoria (UP) said on Thursday.

The fancy dressers were called “racist” by a group of well-organised black haters on social networks with the hashtag #blackface.

The picture was taken at a private 21st birthday party but because they were white students at the institution a witch hunt was quickly launched against UP as well as the two girls.

The SA Students Congress (Sasco) said it felt “particularly angered” by the picture and accused all white people collectively as well as the university of teaching “its” youth to disrespect black people. The institution is actually a functioning multi-racial university.

The display of outrage to maintain and enforce current South African societal norms, once again showed how low whites are in the social hierarchy of tenderpreneurs, nepotists and freeloaders.

“It is clear to us that the white community assisted by institutions of white privilege, like UP, are teaching white youth to disrespect and poke fun at black suffering,” Sasco president Ntuthuko Makhombothi said on Wednesday.

“We have absolutely no confidence in the supposed disciplinary action the university seeks to institute against their precious white students,”

Makhombothi said the picture was distasteful and “racist to the extreme.”

“Black women in our country continue to suffer from triple oppression as black, female, and working class. This incident ridicules the situation of black women in our country and reinforces racist stereotypes about our mothers.”

He said the continued existence of “institutions of white privilege” was an untenable “crisis”, and that the patience of black people in South Africa was “quickly diminishing”.

“Black students will not fold their arms as their suffering and that of their parents is made fun of. The dignity of Africans cannot be trampled on without consequences to the perpetrators.”

Praag has learned that Sasco also plans to write to the Swedish Embassy about a disturbing racist black face cake from 2012 that was discovered only yesterday by its members.

The National Afro-Swedish Association called for a minister of culture’s resignation after she was pictured laughing while cutting the racial stereotype cake and eating it. The event was branded a “racist spectacle” by the National Afro-Swedish Association.

Spokesman Kitimbwa Sabuni told The Local: “In our view, this simply adds to the mockery of racism in Sweden.

“According to the Moderna Museet, the ‘cake party’ was meant to problematize female circumcision but how that is accomplished through a cake representing a racist caricature of a black woman complete with ‘black face’ is unclear.”

Sabuni added that the fact that the minister particiapted in the event, which he argued was also marked by “cannibalistic” overtones, betrays her “incompetence and lack of judgement”.

In a statement, he added: “Her participation, as she laughs, drinks, and eats cake, merely adds to the insult against people who suffer from racist taunts and against women affected by circumcision.

Guns drawn at Unisa battle

Members of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters political party, said to be carrying guns, allegedly assaulted students at the University of South Africa’s main campus in Pretoria yesterday.

Solly Nkuna, chairman of the SA Students’ Congress at Unisa, said chaos erupted at the entrance to the ZK Mathews Hall as Malema was speaking to his supporters.

“Sasco members were singing as Malema spoke and this was disruptive, resulting in an altercation between EFF and Sasco members. Several people were assaulted and three EFF members had guns which they pointed at people with an intention to intimidate them to stop singing,” he said.

Nkuna said Student Representative Council president Brian Mphahlele and several National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union members were among those assaulted.

He said at least one person was taken to hospital and others were treated on the campus.

“We had a problem when we learned that students were forced out of study centres to listen to Malema. We also could not understand why Malema was on campus when the permission for him to be there was denied,” Nkuna said.

He said EFF members climbed over a fence when security guards refused them entry to the campus.

Unisa spokesman Martin Ramotshela said that Malema had been invited by the Unisa Academic and Professional Staff Association to a discussion on land reform but permission for the discussion was withdrawn on Wednesday.

Malema denied that there had been an altercation. – timeslive.co.za

Sasco marches for free education

Students marched to Parliament on Wednesday, calling for free education.

SA Students’ Congress (Sasco) provincial secretary Sello Nkatho said the students marched from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in Cape Town.

The group intended to hand over its memorandum to a representative of the education commission.

Nkatho said the students wanted education to be free for every young person who qualified as poor, according to a government means test.

He envisioned the education assistance taking the form of a bursary.

“There is a body of evidence gathered that shows where government has a political will and correct administration, education can be made free for the poor, the disenfranchised, and the destitute,” he said.

It was unacceptable that higher learning institutes increased their fees between eight and 12 percent every year, said Nkatho.

Sasco would continue with marches and “other alternatives” should government not respond to its call.

Marches were taking place on Wednesday in all provinces except the Free State, where a march had been postponed.

A national march was planned on Thursday and would start at the Tshwane City Hall in Pretoria. – Sapa