Chaos at WITS as students protest

 By: Staff writer

Wits SRC twitter

The deputy president of the Student Representative Council (SRC) at Wits Sthembiso Dabula has vowed to continue protests until the university allows all indebted students to register.

Wits SRC took to the streets of Braamfontein on Tuesday morning amid rising anger over the exclusion of indebted students.

The protest followed a meeting between the university management and the SRC in which the two parties failed to reach an agreement.

The institution, however, says it has already committed R10 million to assist students who need financial aid.

But Dabula says the money will not be enough and the institution must allow students to register and settle their debts while studying.

She says the institution will only allow students with debts of less than R10 000 to register.

“We want them to register students who are owing R150 000, and they only want to allow students who owe R10 000 to register. We are fighting on the basis that in previous years, what they would normally do, is if you are having debt as a student, they would allow you if you owed R120 000 going down to register without you having to pay those fees.

“You sign an AOD (acknowledgement of debt) and you’re allowed to register but what happened differently in the year 2021, they said that only students that are owning R10 000 and downwards must be allowed to register,” she says.

Dabula says Covid-19 has affected most of the students financially and others were defunded by Nsfas and bursaries.