University of Pretoria workers’ strike gives students a bitter taste of the reality of SA’s paradoxes

Dear DM168 reader,

This week, my son started his first classes at the University of Pretoria after a fun week of orientation. It’s been such a joy to see him come into his own. He loves university life so much: the lectures, the lecturers, sport, the diversity of students and subjects, Day House activities, making new friends. He jokingly calls himself a Tukkie and says it’s “Tuks of Niks [Tuks or nothing]".

Sadly, on Day 2 of the academic year, his enthusiasm for university was tempered by a touch of South African reality. When I drove him to the main entrance of the Hatfield campus, there were police cars, a loudspeaker playing music, and National Education, Health and Allied Workers' Union (Nehawu) members who worked at the university were protesting. No students were allowed to enter.

I had to drive my son several times around Hatfield as thousands of eager young students flooded the surrounding streets and pavements, locked outside the campus gates at almost every entrance. Niks access. The doors of learning and teaching were shut.

Some daredevils risked injury by climbing over the high fences and walls to make it to class, while others were stranded outside the gates. No university official came to address them. No one came to open the gates to let them in.

It was chaos and confusion. I offered to drive my son home, but he was determined not to miss classes and he found an access point at a turnstile that connected to a bridge to the main campus.

Seeing the older workers in their red Nehawu T-shirts toyi-toying outside the gates on the one side, and the fresh young faces yearning to learn on the other, brought home the invidious position we find ourselves in as a country.

The workers have every right to a legally protected strike, and their demand for an above-inflation increase of 7% sounds pretty reasonable considering inflation in January was 5.3% and food inflation was 7.2%. What they and the interim vice-chancellor, Professor Themba Mosia, and his management team do not have is the right to lock entrance gates and stop students from learning.

The workers deny closing the gates and obstructing students, but irrespective of who locked those gates – the workers or management – both are equally responsible for infringing on the students’ right to education by not allowing them entry or ensuring them access by preventing strikers from blocking students’ entry.

Rather than opening the gates and monitoring that the workers protest peacefully and not interfere with the students, the university informed all students on Wednesday that they should stay at home and take online classes. Those who did not have internet access could brave the library if they managed to get in. The less advantaged students once again suffer. What a start to a first week on campus.

On Thursday, News 24 reported that the university finally toughened up, and confirmed it served striking employees with a notice informing them it had approached the court to “maintain order and safety” on the premises for students and non-striking employees.

Most of us can empathise with the Nehawu workers on strike because, without inflationary pay increases, our salaries are worth less every year while food prices, petrol, clothing and medical aid fees increase way above inflation.

I can also understand how tough it must be for the university to meet the strikers’ demands for 13th cheques, a once-off bonus, five days’ leave encashment and long-service cash awards when every public entity faces budget cuts as wage demands increase.

University of Pretoria spokesperson Rikus Delport explained to News24 that the university had a 1.7% cut in government funding, tuition fee increases are capped and the university has massive student debt of R650-million. On top of that, it had to spend more than R80-million to run generators because of load shedding.

It’s a catch-22 that requires cool heads and compromise, not trampling on students’ desire to learn. Years of misspending and fleecing of state coffers, collapsed state-owned enterprises such as Eskom and Transnet, an economy that is spluttering on a wing and a prayer, tax avoidance, and poor leadership has led us to the highly indebted, broke state we are in. The 7.5% increase the government gave to state employees has to come from somewhere and departmental budgets are being slashed left, right and centre.

The impact of the austerity budgets is huge, directly hitting essential services. In our DM168 lead story this week, journalist Tamsin Metelerkamp spoke to several senior doctors at public hospitals who are at the coalface of cost-containment initiatives in our health sector. I struggle to imagine how we can build a functional National Health Insurance when our public doctors and nurses are so overstretched in a climate of fiscal austerity.

I was pleased to see Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana put his foot down to stop the endless bleed of billions into the bottomless pit of state-owned enterprises by not giving them another cent of bailouts, as our finance writer Ray Mahlaka reports in the Business Maverick section of the paper. Hopefully, this tough love by Godongwana will spread to every tier of government.

Meanwhile, at last we have a 2024 elections date to determine our fate on 29 May, folks. Let’s use our X to ensure we keep the looters and pie-in-the-sky promisers of paradise at bay, and get some genuinely visionary, competent, level-headed, caring and compassionate people to steer our country out of the morass.

Let's keep our heads down, work hard, tighten those budget belts and all play a small part in making South Africa a better place for everyone.

I will be away on study leave for the next two weeks (I’m doing my Henley MBA exams, trying to wrap my head around finance, operations and processes, and people management). My trusted colleague Sukasha Singh will be at the helm of the newspaper while I’m away, so please send all your letters to her at [email protected]

Yours in defence of truth,

Heather

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R29.