DUT protesters released on warning
The 29 DUT students and staff arrested for gathering illegally in an #OutsourcingMustFall protest have been freed.
|||Durban - The 29 Durban University of Technology students, cleaning and security staff arrested for gathering illegally in an #OutsourcingMustFall protest, have been released on warning.
They appeared in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Friday, represented by attorney Vusi Tembe, who was organised for them by the EFF.
Supporters who packed the court had to stand as the first row of the public gallery was cleared to accommodate the 29.
Three extra police officers stood guard in court as each of the applicants’ names was called out. Some still in cleaner, EFF and security uniforms, they filed out of court silently after they were granted bail on condition they not gather unlawfully at any DUT campus in Durban and not intimidate or obstruct any staff from performing their duties.
They had been arrested on Thursday after gathering outside vice-chancellor Ahmed Bawa’s office, demanding he responds to the memorandum calling for the end of outsourcing of cleaning and security staff.
Signed by representatives of the EFF’s DUT Student Command, the memorandum also demanded a R10 000 minimum wage and free education at the university for the dependants of security and cleaning staff once they were in the employ of DUT.
The memorandum had been accepted by Bawa’s personal assistant. In an e-mailed response to the Daily News, Bawa said as the Student Command was affiliated with the SRC, he had asked them to raise their concerns via the SRC.
“It would be chaotic for the university’s management to have multiple negotiations under way with different student groups,” he said.
He said DUT was already “engaged in re-evaluating the outsourcing of its cleaning and security requirements”.
On the advice of the university council, he had, last month, established a task team to evaluate issues relating to insourcing. “The evaluation of the capacity of the university to take on these staff has yet to be completed.
“The purpose of the task team is precisely to make recommendations to the council in this regard. This is, of course, likely to have an impact on the cost of education at DUT,” he said.
Bawa said this was an important issue and the four-person task team would draw on the expertise of people within and outside the university. They were expected to report back to council in June.
The 29 are expected back in court on March 31.
After Bawa’s resignation as vice-chancellor of DUT last month, Universities South Africa has announced his appointment as its chief executive.
The organisation is a representative body of South Africa’s public universities which aims to promote a more inclusive, responsive and equitable national system of higher education.
Bawa is expected to assume office on May 1.
nosipho.mngoma@inl.co.za
Daily News