The student representative council (SRC) at Wits University is heading a shutdown at the Yale Road entrance to the campus over demands to enable access to education for students who are unable to pay for certain necessities.

The SRC has urged all affected students to join the action against the ‘systematic exclusion’ of students who cannot afford to pay the R10 000 fee to access accommodation and for those not assisted by the Hardship Fund.

The Yale Road entrance is currently the site of protest action and visitors and students are requested to use alternative entry points.

Wits communications manager Shirona Patel says: “Additional security has been brought in to enable access to Wits’ campuses for staff and students and to ensure that staff and students are safe and that the academic programme continues.”

The SRC put forward the following demands:

• Students owing R150 000 or less in fees should be allowed to register for the 2023 academic year.
• The R10 000 upfront fee for registrations should be waived and students allowed to move into their accommodation.
• The university must allocate an additional R30m toward Hardship Accommodation in order to secure more beds for homeless students.
• The NSFAS R45 000 cap for residences must be scrapped with immediate effect.
• All students who are recipients of the Hardship Fund should be allowed to register and not pay the residual amount.

Patel adds: “Wits is committed to enabling students to access higher education, as far as its resources allow. The university has progressively increased the amount of funding allocated to students. In 2022 Wits disbursed over R1.6b to 26 161 students.”

She explains that university management has been working with the SRC over the past few weeks to help secure funding, largely from the private sector to enable academically deserving students to access higher education.

“In fact, up until last night, officials were in contact with the SRC, trying to get as many qualifying students to register as possible. It therefore comes as a surprise that despite these arrangements and the working relationship which has been established, some members of the SRC and some students have elected to protest. Wits has matched the R6.2m brought in by the SRC rand for rand. In effect, there is a pot of R12.4m available in the SRC Fund for qualifying students.”