UJ slammed as students face charges
The lives of three students suspended by the University of Johannesburg remain in limbo after their hearing was postponed.
|||Johannesburg - As the year draws to a close, the lives of three students suspended by the University of Johannesburg remain in limbo after their hearing was postponed on Wednesday.
Claire Ceruti, Xhamle Songwevu and Tshoarelo Mahloko face charges including inciting violence and participating in unauthorised protest action during the outsourcing protest that came on the heels of #FeesMustFall.
Their suspensions could have devastating effects on their academic careers, finances and perceptions in their communities.
“Where we come from it’s not only a matter of you. The community is involved. If I can’t write, I can't motivate the children back home,” said Songwevu. “My family expect me to get home with results.”
He said he was the first person from his village to get a higher education.
Ceruti's PhD funding depends on her finishing the year, or she may have to pay back R80 000.
Mpho Letlate, the deputy vice-chancellor for strategic services, explained the university s policy: “If people get in the system and don’t come out, we can’t accommodate additional people.”
She said she would provide more details about the postponed hearing on Thursday. Students had asked for deferments at previous meetings, she said, but the students disagreed, saying it was the university that kept rescheduling.
Six students were originally suspended. In a YouTube video dated November 19, deputy vice-chancellor Professor Tshilidzi Marwala appears to say suspensions would be “unconditionally uplifted”.
Written statements from the university contradict this verbal pledge. In a signed document dated November 18, the university agreed to temporarily lift suspensions provided the students signed statements agreeing to certain conditions.
Letlate said the video doesn’t show Marwala speaking of the conditions for lifting suspensions. The students maintain he promised it to them unconditionally.
“The management seem to think they can do anything they like and get away with it. It’s beyond bad-faith negotiation,” Ceruti said.
Three students signed the letters and were reinstated. Ceruti didn't want to sign because “it required us to make an apology and we don’t know what we’re apologising for”.
Tracey Lomax, who represents the three students, said UJ wanted to postpone the hearing for lack of evidence. She submitted a formal objection to the suspensions, disciplinary hearings and refusal to defer exams during the morning's meeting.
“The suspensions were imposed in a discriminatory manner; out of a group of hundreds of students who participated in protest action, the varsity suspended only six students,” the statement said, according to the copy obtained by The Star, adding that the suspensions were based on unlawful university regulations.
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