WITS SRC: Calling all corporates, donations desperately needed

University of Witwatersrand (Wits) students on Tuesday continued efforts to raise R10 million to assist the ‘missing middle’. This included students who will not be able to study this year as a result of outstanding debts, after receiving R50,000 donations this week from popular musicians iFani, Cassper Nyovest and DJ Sbu.

Demonstrations over the financial exclusion of students and university transformation interrupted registrations at Wits in January before the student representative council (SRC) and the university agreed to a range of measures to ensure indebted students can continue their studies. SRC Secretary General Fasiha Hassan on Tuesday said that before tallying up proceeds from Orientation Week, the #Access campaign has already raised over R3 million. Nedbank has donated R2 million, Abbotts Laboratory R600,000 and the Academic Staff Association of Wits University R100,000.

“If we’re unable to raise money, unfortunately they’ll have to go home,” said Hassan. While the university has given some leeway to indebted students, thousands might have to rely on the fundraising efforts to continue their studies. Last year, the Wits SRC raised R4.4 million to assist students on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS). Following the #FeesMustFall protests, government allocated R2.6 billion to fund the no-fee increase at tertiary institutions in 2016 and President Jacob Zuma committed another R4.5 billion to NSFAS.

The efforts at Wits, however, focus on the missing middle – students who don’t meet the criteria to qualify for NSFAS but still can’t afford higher education. “We know that fundraising is no solution to the education crisis. But for the SRC, the students who are shut out of the system are not just statistics on paper, they are desperate and hungry young minds who just want to uplift themselves, their families and communities,” said a statement from the Wits SRC.

“Nedbank donated. What is Standard Bank doing? What is FNB doing? Large companies like Coca-Cola, whose target market are students, what are they doing?” asked Hassan on Tuesday. The #Access campaign has set up an online portal for those willing to donate. She said if the campaign is successful in covering student debt, they will look at assisting with upfront fee payments and the lack of accommodation. In the future the SRC is looking to establish an investment fund to continue to help students.

“Even if we raise R6 million or R8 million or R12 million, that’s a whole lot more money than we had yesterday,” Hassan added.

While the SRC is aiming to assist students who face immediate exclusion from their studies, Hassan said it’s important to continue the project of decolonising tertiary spaces, promoting a shift in the funding model and transformation.

President Zuma has announced a commission of inquiry into higher education funding, as well as increases in NSFAS spending, and Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande has held meetings with SRC leaders from across the country. But last year’s Fees Must Fall protests continued after Zuma’s zero-fee increase announcement as students pushed both campus-specific and national issues. It seems unlikely demonstrators will be satisfied with temporary solutions.

In his State of the Nation Address last week, Zuma hardly touched on last year’s protests or higher education funding, but said Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan will outline details of the funding shortfall in the upcoming budget speech.

Through Amandla.mobi, academics and staff, mostly from University of the Western Cape (UWC), recently launched a petition demanding a review of tax policies to provide free education. Noting the stark inequalities in access to university education and the current discordance with the state’s commitment to free education and the Freedom Charter, the academics argue for an increase in spending on higher education. To cover it, they suggest closing tax loopholes and raising taxes on high income earners and companies.

“Contrary to the insistence by government and the private sector that free higher education for the majority of students is unaffordable, it is imperative that government find the funds needed. For example, taxation policies could be reviewed with this objective in mind,” said the statement. It’s signed by academics from UWC including Emeritus Professor David Sanders, Professor Ben Cousins, Associate Professor Moenieba Isaacs, Associate Professor Shirley Brooks, senior lecturer Gavin Reagon, senior researcher Nikki Schaay, Associate Professor Desiree Lewis, and University of Johannesburg Professor Salim Vally.

They “call on our government to abolish payment for tertiary education for at least the majority of poor students and to meet the shortfall in university funding by radically reviewing taxation policy and budgetary allocations, with particular focus on corporate tax and tax avoidance, and on the top bracket of income earners. Such a move may alienate a tiny minority but would be a much-needed and cost-effective intervention towards a more equitable and sustainable South Africa”. The statement has almost 250 signatories, many who are staff at higher education students across the country.

On Tuesday, Public Order Police reportedly demolished a shack erected by the #RhodesMustFall (RMF) group at the University of Cape Town and fired stun grenades to disperse students. In a statement, Rhodes Must Fall explained ‘Shackville’ as a protest against the exclusion of black students trying to find accommodation and historical dispossession.

“RMF traces a line of colonial intent linking the genocidal violence which characterised the original theft of Black land at the dawn of colonialism with the bureaucratised system of exclusion of the Black child from accommodation and education across that very same land today,” the group said. The university condemned protestors for burning several pieces of artwork and refusing to leave.

Meanwhile, the Durban University of Technology on Tuesday suspended academic activities for two days following protests this week. The protests followed the death of first-year student, 19-year-old Lindelani Myeza. Isolezwe reported that he committed suicide last week, falling from the sixth floor of Durban’s Persada Residence, after being denied NSFAS funding.

NSFAS and Minister Nzimande however said Myeza had successfully been granted funding and had been informed of the decision. Police are investigating the death. DM

Photo: @FeesMustFall protesters in downtown Johannesburg, 21 October 2015. (Greg Nicolson)