UKZN: What is Happening?

Written by a student at UKZN                                                                                                                       Edited by Naeemah Dudan

University of Kwazulu-Natal students have been having issues with the Management since the second semester started. The SRC has tried engaging in talks with the Management but that has been futile.

About three weeks ago the SRC organized a peaceful protest. It was a success. No classes were interrupted and no property was vandalized. Management agreed that they would look into our requests and attend to all of them. This has not happened. New policies have been implemented for next year which means that hundreds of students will not be able to come back and complete their degrees next year.

UKZN is a historically black university and majority of the black students are on financial aid or NSFAS. The new policies only meant that over half of them would not qualify for the above mentioned aids and that they would be forced to drop out of school. We’ve been united to fight these policies while attending our classes. We protest when we’re free, and attend when the timetable says we must. No violence has been taking place.

 From the beginning of the semester, we’ve had private security on campus due to these ongoing discussions between the SRC and Management. Last week a number of cases were raised about the private security assaulting girls. We went to report this to the campus security (RMS- Risk Management Services) and  nothing was done! Girls feel unsafe walking on campus because of these men who have reduced us into sexual objects. Out of frustration from this issue, the male students decided to help us protest against these men. That same night, our biggest exam venue was set alight. The private security company has people surrounding all buildings on campus yet the WOB writing place still burnt down. As a student, I am genuinely convinced that the private security had something to do with that incident. We aren’t allowed close to any University property at night yet a building was burnt. I’m not pointing fingers, but Mi7 should be taken in for questioning.

Yesterday, 05 September 2016, just after lunchtime we received the news about the 8% fee increment. We’d been fighting against the increase implemented by our University already and this only meant it would get worse. Students agreed to gather outside the library by the library lawns. We were chanting peacefully while waiting for other students to come and join when the police cars started driving onto campus. The crowd started moving towards the Durban Road exit to try and mobilize people from the Residence buildings around that area. Before the students got there, teargas was thrown at them and they were being shot at with rubber bullets. This became the scene for the next 3 hours. Gun shots and teargas after every 5 minutes. You could hear screaming students for the rest of the afternoon. The police threw teargas into the Res and surrounding areas. This was a way of making sure no one could leave Res and no one could enter Res; anyone caught in between was getting arrested. All this teargas started becoming a health hazard. There were several ambulances driving onto campus to fetch suffocating students. I personally spent the night in hospital with my friend who suffered from an asthma attack.

Today – 06 September 2016. We woke up to the news that a female student was raped yesterday by a police officer on campus. Lecturers came out in their gowns and formed a human barricade to protect us from the police. We changed and held up posters expressing our pain about this issue. The police came and lured us off campus. They led us to Durban Road. Hundreds of students sang as they walked down Durban Road. We were peaceful. No one had any weapon, just books because we thought we’d have classes today. As we walked down we saw the police had formed a line further down the road and waited for us. We were all under the assumption that they’re trying the protect us until we saw them loading their guns. Live ammunition was added to the mix. As we approached them with our hands in the air they threw teargas into the crowd. Not once, 5 times. Students scattered in all directions and the police started firing at us. Rubber bullets and real bullets while we were trying to recover from the teargas we’d just inhaled. Some students fell and some ran leaving their personal belongings behind. One girl fell and when she got up the police asked her to pick up every phone along the way. As she was doing this they were kicking her and slapping her. Once she was done the one police officer said to her “uzonya s’febe” (translated: you’re fucked, bitch) before he shot her with a rubber bullet. I later found myself helping this girl get medical treatment which is why I have details of her story.

These are only some of the brutalities we have been experiencing at UKZN but because we have been called “hooligans” so many times, no one cares. We do not vandalize property for the sake of it. We do not burn things because we enjoy seeing flames. Sometimes it’s the only way we get listened to. I am not in any way supporting the damage of property, but sometimes it is not our fault. WOB writing place burnt down with no students in sight, are we still to blame?