To all CPUT parents, guardians and students

It is with a heavy heart that the Executive Management team of CPUT decided to close all of our residences. We are well aware that a decision like this has far-reaching consequences for students in terms of travelling and accommodation.

We have operated under very exceptional circumstances over the past three weeks, with unprecedented acts of violence, destruction of university property, vandalism, looting, thuggery and intimidation of non-protesting students and staff. After the recent arrests it became clear that the instigators resided at our residences in some or other capacity, using the shelter of the accommodations to plan their next attack.

Non-protesting students were terrorised into joining in these activities, however, upon leaving the safety of their residences they often returned to a looted room. Security guards were harassed into abandoning their stations at the residence entrances. These entrances are usually carefully monitored, but without security guards they were left unattended, which became a safety risk, especially for female students. Our ultimate fear is that the next act of violence may result in injury, or worse, the loss of life and it is our responsibility to avoid this at all cost.

During the nation-wide “#feesmustfall” campaign CPUT Management negotiated with student leadership and indeed reached an agreement in good faith on Sunday, 25 October. Management then agreed that the University will defer or suspend the student debt to all those who were not funded by NSFAS from 2013 to 2015. Student leadership were also given amnesty after the damage to university property and other activities, with the undertaking that normal academic activities will resume on Tuesday, 27 October.

It was also agreed that a Crisis Committee would be established consisting of student leadership, Management and Union leaders. This committee was subsequently formed and a number of meetings took place. However, the disruptions and violence continued on Tuesday, 27 October, thus defaulting on the agreement reached with the students.

In a special Council meeting on Thursday, 29 October, another agreement was reached and signed by the Chairperson of Council, Vice-Chancellor and student leadership. Based on this agreement, the student leadership made an undertaking that protest action will cease and normal university activities would commence on Monday, 2 November.

This agreement was reached at enormous expense to the university when on Thursday, 12 November, the debt of over 5000 students, to the value of approximately R111million, was cleared; a concession that no other university, to our knowledge, has made to date.

Additional resolutions agreed upon included a 3% reduction of residence fees, a 0% tuition fee increase and no upfront payment of registration fees for students who cannot afford it in 2016. Council endorsed the decision to establish the Crisis Committee, specifically mandated to deal with the issues of outsourcing of services and the pricing of residences.

Despite the agreements, resurgence in violence occurred from Friday, 13 November. This included the petrol bombing of our security control centre, the torching of our financial aid offices on two occasions in addition to the torching of a bus on the Bellville campus, and the looting of bookstores at our Cape Town and Wellington campuses. The ATM machine at the Cape Town Campus was also bombed, indicating that the protest was no longer about student issues, but involved thuggery and the intention to loot public and private resources.

The University supports the constitutional right to peaceful and lawful protests, as well as the plight of poor students to obtain quality education. We can all agree that violent acts are not conducive to normal university functioning. Our staff and students were continuously threatened and victimised and Management could not idly stand by while the destructive behaviour continued. The University relied on the South African Police Service in addition to security personnel, however, these measures left matters unresolved, while students were feeling the pressure caused by the postponement of exams, desperate to complete their final assessments.

The University was therefore left with the decision to close down the residences immediately, to combat the unsafe conditions forced upon non-protesting students and staff, where public and private property was also left at risk. Special arrangements are in progress to accommodate students who are writing their final exit level subjects.

Arrangements are also being made for general enquiries and assistance. Students are urged to make contact with their relevant faculty managers or support staff for assistance or with the office of the Dean of Students. Special cases are being handled by the Dean of Students and the respective faculties.

We apologise to all our stakeholders for the trauma that our staff and students endured and thank everyone for cooperating with us during a challenging time. We are hopeful that taking the drastic step to close residences for the year will bring peace and stability to our university.

It is also our hope that we can once again operate within the bounds of CPUT’s core values: A spirit of Ubuntu and mutual respect, the principle of equity, the promotion of innovation, accountability for our actions, and striving for excellence and efficiency in all our operations.

Written by CPUT News

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Dear CPUT Convocants and Alumni

Let me take this opportunity to thank everyone who placed their confidence in the Convocation leadership elected in September 2015. Having accepted the responsibility to lay a solid foundation for this statutory body, our institution was hit by what originated as a genuine societal call, lead by student leadership across the country under the #FeesMustFall campaign. I thus produce this statement with deep sadness on the realities the University is confronted with, as one of the hardest hit higher education institutions.

In accordance with section 51 of CPUT statute, the Convocation may discuss and state its opinion on any matter relating to the university, including any matter referred to it by Council, Senate, or the Institutional Forum. It is therefore incumbent upon us that Management and Council should ensure that legitimate interests of stakeholders are considered and recognized. Management and Council should equally strive to achieve the appropriate balance between its various stakeholder groupings, in the best interest of the University, whilst ensuring equitable treatment of all stakeholders. In our opinion students are the primary stakeholders within our institution; hence we are compelled to express our views on the ongoing violent protest action and destruction of our beloved institution.

First and foremost as the CPUT convocation,it would be highly irresponsible of us to downplay the troubling predicament in which many of our working class and poorer students find themselves. Long before the protest action, we understood and strongly advocated for some of the current students’ grievances to Council, precisely because, to us, education is not a commodity like a bar of chocolate, which is physically consumed until there’s nothing left.

We therefore believe that the education system in our university in particular and our country in general ought to be transformed. Education can’t be perpetually commoditized, as a yardstick to increase accessibility to the privileged, while on the other hand it disadvantages those that are less fortunate, which are the working class and the poor. Whiles we support and sympathize with some of the students’ genuine struggles, we denounce with utmost disgust the unwarranted acts of violence, intimidation and destruction of university property that has characterized the protest action.

What started as a genuine cause has now turned into a state of anarchy and lawlessness; as Convocation we cannot continue to remain silent as if it’s business as usual. It has come to our attention that the students’ struggle has been hijacked by some faceless and undefined third forces, which in return is using innocent students to sabotage our university and undermine the legitimate and democratically elected Student Representative Council. Needless to say, CPUT statutes recognize the SRC as a statutory body and the voice of all students. To restore order, we call on Council to reconsider its decision to talk to illegitimate leadership that does not represent the will of the majority of students but are representing the instigators of violent protest at the University. The perpetrators are being given hired cars, food and lawyers to represent them in justifying their actions of vandalism, all in the name of “fees must fall.” We call on CPUT Council to find these sponsors and expose their ulterior motives of funding this anarchy that cost the nation education by destroying the very limited resources we operate with.

Secondly, while we welcome all the efforts taken by management thus far in trying to resolve the status quo, much more still needs to be done and Convocation, as a statutory body within the university (with former student leaders within our ranks), believe that we have a major role to play in finding amicable solutions, as we have traversed this journey in the past and there is no substitute for experience. We also note with serious concern the silence or absence of proper guidance and firm leadership from both student leadership and that of unions. Their role cannot be confined or reduced to boardrooms and crisis committee meetings. They (SRC and union leaders as recognized by statutes/collective agreements) ought to have played a more pivotal role in so far as leadership is concerned, as all the issues that are a cause for concern are related to their constituencies. We call upon student representative councils (SRCs) at all campuses to rightfully claim their space and exercise their authority as enshrined in both the Higher Education Act and institutional statutes.

We further appeal to management and Council in particular to use this period of vacation wisely and continue with its engagement with all relevant and legitimate structures within our institution, even if it means not having holidays. We say this because Council is charged with a responsibility to ensure that the University complies with applicable laws and considers adherence to rules, codes and standards, through delegation to management of an effective compliance framework and processes. It also remains the duty of Council to ensure that there are measures in place for transparent and effective communication with stakeholders and to ensure that disputes are resolved effectively, efficiently and expeditiously.

We demand that management must develop a proper and congruent plan of action for next year that will be supported by all stakeholders before the University closes. The plan should include, amongst others, a clear strategy on how the university will accommodate first year students, given that currently all students occupying residences will need to still be accommodated in residences until they complete their exams.

Kind Regards

Mr. Bheki Hadebe
President of CPUT Convocation

Written by CPUT News

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Two academics in the Faculty of Education have contributed two chapters to a textbook which introduces prospective teachers to children’s literature and details how children can be encouraged to become enthusiastic readers.

Drs Hanlie Dippenaar and Candice Livingston were recently part of a joint collaboration with the University of Pretoria in the writing and publishing of an undergraduate textbook for the teaching of children’s literature.

The textbook, Introducing children’s Literature: a guide to the South African Classroom was published by Van Schaik Publishers. The textbook, which comprises of 11 chapters, has been prescribed for first-year students in the English Department on the Wellington Campus.

“A lot has been published on children’s literature but little has been published on how it is implemented within the South African classroom context. This book deals with where literature fits in within the teaching and learning environment in the classroom’ says Livingston.

“It looks at how caregivers, teachers and parents play a role in the educational development of learners.”

She adds that the book also addresses how teaching should be done in the context of a decolonised curriculum which is demanded by the #FeesMustFall movement.

Livingston’s chapter deals with types of children’s literature, while Dippenaar’s looks at the historical development of the genre in South Africa in English, Afrikaans and IsiXhosa with a particular reference to oral tradition.

The textbook is available at Van Schaik’ bookstores and will soon be available at the CPUT libraries.

Written by Kwanele Butana
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