Talks plan on campus crisis

NMMU under fire over transformation and disadvantaged students

THE United Front has called on all tertiary students to hold a national conference to thrash out a strategy to fight what they say is untransformed and inaccessible higher education.

In an interview yesterday, United Front interim national secretary Mazibuko Jara said institutions like NMMU, for example, “behaved like they were in Europe”. He said the university had very few black lecturers and claimed course content did not promote indigenous history.

NMMU spokeswoman Roslyn Baatjies said the communications department was too busy to respond yesterday and would do so today.

A strongly worded statement from the United Front on the state of higher learning comes as lack of transformation, alleged racism on campuses and the financial exclusion of some students at universities nationwide has come under the spotlight in recent weeks.

The United Front said: “Our institutions of higher learning reproduce the inequalities the United Front was formed to fight and defeat.”

The party threw its support behind student movements which had taken up such campaigns on campuses.

“The issues raised at Rhodes or Wits university are issues happening in most of our higher education institution,” Jara said.

The United Front wanted to “have one protest in the country where we will address these issues, not only the lack of transformation but also the issues of access to education by all students despite their backgrounds”.

-Avuyile Mgxithama-Diko