HitRECord
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The Zika Virus
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Perdeby
Tuks se amptelike studentekoerant / Official Tuks student newspaper / Kuranta ya baithuti ya semmušo ya Tuks
29February2016
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Campus activities resume under heightened security CAREL WILLEMSE Campus activities returned to normal on 29 February across all UP campuses amid a heavy police and security presence. This followed a week-long shutdown of the Hatfield and Groenkloof campuses as a result of the #AfrikaansMustFall protests relating to the revision of the UP language policy. UP confirmed that a number of students at the forefront of the recent protests received letters informing them that they have been suspended from UP. EFFSC-UP’s Amla Monageng told JacarandaFM that “these are the tactics to delay the revolution … [and] to delay change at the institution”. He continued to say that the EFFSC-UP would continue with protests until their demands are met. The suspension of the students is subject to a full investigation. On Sunday 28 February, Minister of Higher Education Dr Blade Nzimande met with UP management, students, and stakeholders at UP to raise his concerns about the violence on campus and to urge students to allow academic activities to resume. In his meeting, the minister highlighted the investment of the country in the youth and the need for the new generation of graduates with skills to contribute to building the national economy. He also noted the potential costs to the country, as well as to individual students, of further disruptions to their academic programmes. Dr Nzimande urged students to go back to class without delay, and at the same time to
engage with university management in peaceful discussions to find resolution to their issues. The EFFSC-UP walked out of the meeting after Dr Nzimande refused to engage with them and tweeted the following from their account.
The EFF returned later to engage with university management. Time would have been set aside on Monday 29 February to engage with the leaders of student structures, as requested by student leaders according to a statement released by UP. At the time of going to print, no meeting between management and students had taken place. A separate press conference was also held on Sunday in which the ANC and Solidariteit announced their agreement on a number of matters relating to the recent unrest on university campuses across South Africa. The parties involved in this alliance include the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), ANC (GP), SACP (GP), Cosatu (GP), Sanco (GP), ANCYL (GP), Young Communist League (GP) and Sasco (GP), along with the Solidariteit group, consisting of Afriforum, Afriforum Youth and Solidariteit. According to a media release, the parties engaged with each other in a “constructive, bilateral meeting” on Wednesday
24 February to discuss three critical areas: to condemn the intimidation, disruption, violence and attempts to polarise students on the basis of race; to discuss the transformation of the university’s language policy; and to ensure the re-opening of the university on Monday 29 February. This alliance received strong criticism on social media under the #ANCAfriforum hashtag. Interim spokesperson for Uprising, Tumelo “Duke” Rasebopye, says that a meeting and agreement of this nature was frustrating because the student organisations on the ground were not made aware of it. He added that the feeling is that entering into such a discussion is “selling out” on students as no student voice was present, and that it brings about a decision on student matters without students being consulted on what the way forward should be. According to UP spokesperson Anna-Retha Bouwer, the review of the UP language policy will begin anew due the conflict brought about through the previous process. The process will be handled by a multiparty committee facilitated by an independent party. Rapport reported that the previous suggestion of the language review committee (that English be used as the only tuition language) was not the finding of the committee, but rather that a multilingual approach should be followed. Stringent security measures remain in place around campus, with access only granted to students and staff with valid access cards.
If book blurbs were honest
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Activists argue against maiden bursaries Page 9
Work at Perdeby. Application forms inside.