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It’s almost March, and the Durban University of Technology is yet to begin the 2018 academic programme after a four-week delay as a result of protest by workers in demand of a 10% pay increase.
There has been no agreement reached between the unions representing the workers and the university, which has offered 6.5% increase.
The workers at DUT have been on strike for the past seven weeks.
Last week the vice-chancellor, Thandwa Mthembu, told the media that the 6.5% increase in basic pay and the 6.5% increase in the housing allowance would place the university into a R12 million financial deficit for 2018. Mthembu added that, should the university meet the demand of the workers of 10%, R62 million would be required.
Students joined the protest in greater numbers last week in solidarity with the workers and out of frustration with the four-week delay to the academic calendar.
Student leader Phindile Mkhize told City Press that students were calling on the vice-chancellor to address his staff.
“We are almost at the end of the first semester of the academic calendar. Some of us have paid for modules for classes we haven’t been to. Others have paid for residences they are not yet in.”
Mkhize says the university is still closed. “There are only two gates open and there is security, with a list of workers’ [names].”
According to Mkhize the university has given the security instruction to only allow in workers who sign the 6.5% wage agreement at the gate.
“Workers are basically being coerced into signing and are told that no one may work or enter university premises unless they sign with security for the 6.5%.”
The student representative council president, Siphephelo Mthembu, told City Press that students were troubled and concerned by the delay in the academic calendar.
“Students have been caught in the middle between a dispute from management and the workers unions.”
Mthembu added that the student council hadn’t been part of the negotiations but last week, after pressure from the indefinite postponing of the academic calendar, requested a meeting with the vice-chancellor.
“On Wednesday we met to try find out what was going on and how we may come to a compromise but he told us the opposite of what the unions were saying and it became difficult to pick sides when we were unsure of what was going on.”
Mthembu added that: “Students want to go back to class but the challenge is who will teach if the lecturers are in protest. We still have unresolved funding and accommodation issues for many students.
“As student leaders the system is against us and we seem to have reached a deadlock,” Mthembu said.
Final year library and information studies student, Nosipho Khumalo (22) said the four-week delay was “a scary experience”.
“I see people who make a joke of it especially students who are funded and or on government bursaries but for me it hits home. I’m self-funded and stay at a private residence where my parents had to pay for my deposit and rent as well as groceries. Each week we have been waiting in the hope school will resume and it is emotionally draining,” she said.
Khumalo is the eldest at home and the first among her siblings to go to university.
“I was supposed to start with my in-service training in June but because we haven’t started the academic calendar, I will be delayed and this will delay my graduation..
On February 16 the university sent an email to students and the staff, saying the academic year is postponed indefinitely and that a revised academic calendar would be sent as soon as possible.
The deputy minister for higher education and training, Buti Manamela, was expected to visit and consult with the union and the university today.
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