Image: QuintenLetcher [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Protesters’ demands would push university past breaking point Parliament hears
The University of KwaZulu-Natal will be bankrupted if it cedes to student demands that underpinned recent violent protests, officials from the institution have warned.
Speaking to Parliament’s portfolio committee on higher education on 3 March, UKZN chief financial officer Thuthu Mbhele said acquiescing to students’ call for the scrapping of historical debts and free registration would “push the university into bankruptcy”.
Several South African universities have been rocked by unrest over historical debt, academic exclusion and accommodation issues in recent months. Protests at UKZN’s Westville campus have been particularly violent, with a number of buildings torched. The university and student leaders agreed to a truce on 26 February although students are still not completely satisfied. The protests have racked up R31 million (US$2m) in damages to university property this year, UKZN vice-chancellor Nana Poku told MPs.
Mbhele said the university was already reeling from skyrocketing student debt and concessions made to students this year to forgo R1 billion in tuition fees. She said that giving in to students’ new demands would cost the university R2.26bn in 2020 alone. Student debt has grown from R600m in 2010 to R1.7bn at the end of 2019, said Mbhele.
UKZN officials had been called before the committee alongside counterparts from two other universities: Fort Hare and the Western Cape. The three had been singled out as hotspots of the latest round of protests.
Fort Hare chief financial officer Nielesh Ravgee said students’ demand of “register one, register all” is simply not feasible. Fort Hare’s total 2020 budget is R1.5bn, of which half must come from fees, he said—and student debt totalled R639m at the end of 2019.
Philemon Mapulane, the chair of the portfolio committee, warned that student debt is a crucial issue for the higher education sector. He estimated the debt burden for all South African universities at R9bn at the end of 2019. He slammed student protesters, particularly at UKZN, for becoming violent. “Destruction of property is an absolute no. You cannot destroy property that belongs to a future generation,” he said.
Earlier in the meeting UKZN student representative council president, Sifiso Simelane, denounced the violence despite the SRC driving the protests. He said that the “violence hijacks our struggle” and called violent protesters criminals, not students.