Students and SRC members in support of the hunger strike at Wits. image from Sunday World.
Students at the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) have embarked on a hunger strike to protest against the financial exclusion of students. The strike, which began last week, aims to pressure the university to register all financially excluded students and provide them with accommodation.
The students, including those with historical debt and financial barriers, are demanding that the university relax its registration requirements. Currently, students must pay at least 50% of their debt or owe less than R10,000 to be allowed to register for the following year.
The Student Representative Council (SRC) has joined the strike in solidarity, with some members also participating in the hunger strike. Deputy President of the Wits SRC, Boipelo Sepetsu, explained that the students chose this form of protest to avoid violence and disruption.
“We were trying to avoid the conventional route of blocking gates, fighting with staff, and protesting outside because we also want the staff to have time to deal with these urgent issues,” Sepetsu said.
The students are seeking a solution to the registration crisis, which has left many students unable to focus on their studies due to concerns about accommodation, registration, and funding.
A representative of the hunger strike, Feziwe Ndwayana, emphasized that their mission is to ensure all students are registered. “We believe that there’s no student who shouldn’t be registered. The conversations we’ve had with the SRC, we’ve all agreed that even if it’s just 5 students who haven’t registered, that would still be an injustice.”
However, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have opposed the hunger strike, calling it an ineffective strategy that puts students’ health at risk. Wits EFF chairperson, Tlhompo Thogomusi, preferred that students exercise their right to peaceful protest instead.
“The plan would be to disrupt the daily schedule of the university, such as lectures and buses, because when you go on a hunger strike, you are not taking anything from the university,” Thogomusi said. “In fact, the university is saving money because they do not have many mouths to feed.”
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