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<h1 class="">University of Pretoria 'like Alcatraz' - EFF students</h1>
<span id="spnDate" class="">2016-06-08 08:43</span>
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<p class="">Karabo Ngoepe, News24</p>
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<p class="">Students clashing with police and security at the University of Pretoria. (Karabo Ngoepe, News24)</p>
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<p>Pretoria- The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command
(EFFSC) at the University of Pretoria has accused the institution of silencing
students who try to voice their concerns regarding the process dealing with the
university's language policy.</p><p>"Students are being silenced because the university
still has the court order hanging over their heads," EFFSC transformation
officer Onthatile Marang told News24.</p><p>"We can't even have peaceful demonstrations. Every time
we try to do anything there are police here. The place is like Alcatraz."</p><p>The institution has been looking at ways to deal with its
language policy following protests over the use of Afrikaans as a medium of
instruction. Earlier in the year there were clashes between students after a
call by organisations, including the EFF, that Afrikaans be removed as a medium
of instruction at the university. The clashes led to the university temporarily
closing down. The institution then introduced processes to find an amicable
solution that would suit all parties.</p><p>The various stakeholders have been attending lekgotlas that
were looking into the issue but the EFFSC says they have pulled out of the
processes as they did not believe they would yield results.</p><p>During a lekgotla that was held in February, stakeholders
were allegedly told to sign a peace accord that would see the institution
lifting the court order and engaging student organisations going forward.</p><p>"The university was supposed to sign the peace accord
and lift the court order but the vice-chancellor did not do that. They keep
using it to silence students every time we try to raise issues. There was a
time we went to the administrative building to speak to the vice-chancellor and
assist a student but we found public order police and security there,"
said Marang.</p><p><strong>No decision-making powers</strong></p><p>During the same lekgotla, work streams to deal with
language, curriculum transformation and residence life were allegedly set up,
but the student body says the process was done without consultation with the
other stakeholders and it was imposed on them. They say they have decided to
pull out of the processes.</p><p>The organisation's Amla Monageng said they scrutinised the
work streams and realised they had no decision-making powers and the people
that were appointed to lead them were imposed on them.</p><p>"As the EFF we analysed why they were established but
we then discovered that they don't have any decision-making powers. Even the
lekgotla itself doesn't have powers but can only make recommendations.
Secondly, we have streams facilitated by people who never diagnosed any
problems in the system," he said.</p><p>Monageng said the people leading the process were employees of
the institution who had been there for many decades and never saw anything
wrong with the status quo</p><p>The university wanted to dictate to them how things should
happen and what should be considered, he said.</p><p>"We had the challenge of the terms of reference. The
university comes on board to negotiate but it dictates the terms of reference
to us. Also the time frames that were put on the table.”</p><p>Monageng also questioned how the university could appoint an
independent body to look at the issue of transformation while the working
streams were looking into the matter.</p><p>"We can't have two parallel processes. What if one
decides that we should have [the university's] language policy and the other
one says we should have a multi-language policy? We are still confused
ourselves by these two processes," he said.</p><p><strong>Two sides to a story</strong></p><p>The general secretary of the student branch of the EFF at
the University of Pretoria, Wezile Madonsela said they wanted to give their
side of the story, which the university was not allowing the rest of the
country to hear.</p><p>"South Africa needs to know what the media has not
reported on regarding what AfrikaansMustFall is all about. We are labeled as
aggravators and inciters of violence," she said.</p><p>University of Pretoria spokesperson Anna-Retha Bouwer told
News24 that during a recent sitting of the senate, the language policy was
discussed but no final decision was reached. She disputed claims that the
stream leaders were imposed on students.</p><p>"The mandate of the work streams and their composition
were decided at the first lekgotla. The option to choose their own chairperson
was open to all work streams. At least two work streams utilised this option.
In one case a student co-chair was elected, in another the convener was
unanimously asked to chair," she said.</p><p><a href="http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/university-of-pretoria-like-alcatraz-eff-students-20160608">http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/university-of-pretoria-like-alcatraz-eff-students-20160608</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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