Rubber bullets fired at Rhodes graduation ceremony

Words: Sindisiwe Tshona and Ndimphiwe Mpongoma/GroundUp

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Police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse about 100 protesters outside a Rhodes University graduation ceremony for master’s and doctoral students in Makhanda on Friday morning. 13 students were arrested.

This comes two days after the high court granted the university an interdict against continued protests. The campus was rocked on Tuesday and Wednesday by protests against the university’s new fee payment protocol, under which students would have to pay all their fees, including debt from previous years, by the end of the year to register for the new year.

Since the interdict was granted on Wednesday, the university has said that talks with student leaders had been constructive.

In a statement on Friday afternoon, the Student Representative Council (SRC) described the gathering as ‘a silent protest’ organised by ‘an unidentified group of students’.

It warned that ‘the interim interdict remains in place and legally binds students to refrain from protest action’.

The SRC called on the police ‘to take into consideration that students are vulnerable and may not understand the extent of the implications of an interdict. Violence is never the answer.’

It asked students to contact the SRC about anyone who had been ‘arrested or injured’.

What the protocol says

Under the protocol, students who owe money will not be able to see their results and will only be told whether they qualify for supplementary or aegrotat exams.

Graduates who owe money can attend graduation, but they won’t get their degree certificate until the debt is paid. Their transcripts won’t be sent to other universities.

Before they can register for a new year, students in debt must either have NSFAS funding confirmed or get a loan covering the full amount from a lender such as Fundi or StudentHero.

Students who can’t get a loan must prove they tried. They must then sign an agreement acknowledging the debt and agreeing to pay it off in instalments.

Apart from students with confirmed NSFAS funding, no student who still owes more than R25,000 after the upfront payment will be allowed into residence.

Students who fall behind on their payment plans will be handed over to a debt collection agency.

University management told students on Monday that the protocol is part of measures to deal with outstanding student debt and to keep the university financially sustainable in the long term.

In 2024, the university said students owed R321-million. The university also said R43-million of student debt had built up in a single year because of caps on NSFAS funding.

Its audited results for 2023 show that the amount it set aside for student debt it did not expect to recover rose from R24-million in 2022 to R91-million.

Rhodes is not alone. Universities South Africa recently told Parliament that students owe universities R59-billion.

What students object to

A memorandum of demands handed over to the university on Tuesday outlines the students’ demands.

The memorandum says students are ‘not against the university’s pursuit of financial sustainability’, but ‘a fair balance must be struck’ between this and* ‘the financial realities faced by students’.*

Students want a stop to the withholding of July and November results, which students need in order to apply for jobs or further studies, and for transcripts to be provided regardless of debt.

They have also asked the university to raise the debt limit for living in residence from R25,000 to R75,000.

The SRC proposed a ‘sliding scale’ for students who cannot pay off their debt, under which students owing less than R10,000 would pay 50% upfront, those owing R10,000 to R49,999 would pay 40%, and those owing R50,000 or more would pay 30%.

One student, who relied on NSFAS as an undergraduate, said she feared her debt would keep her out of postgraduate study. ‘Next year, you’ll be thinking of doing post-grad, but you won’t be able to do your post-grad,’ she said.

She said students should be allowed to finish their studies and find work before they have to pay. ‘Allow me to finish studying. After finishing, release my results so I can go find work,’ she said.

Campus shutdown

Students had shut down the campus on Tuesday. In a statement on Wednesday morning, the university said it was ‘gravely concerned’ about the shutdown.

It said students had blocked staff who prepare meals, clean residences and provide water, and that water tankers could not get onto the campus.

The SRC said it was committed to ‘peaceful protest’. It said it ‘unequivocally condemns’ conduct by ‘a group of unidentified individuals’ that could damage property, and that its mandate was ‘to secure the rejection of the proposed Student Debt Protocol’.

On Wednesday, the university went to the high court in Makhanda. Judge Motilal Sunil Rugunanan granted an interim interdict against SRC president Thalethu Magidela, three other named respondents and ‘all persons associating themselves with the unlawful conduct’.

The order bars them from* ‘participating in, encouraging, facilitating and/or promoting any unlawful activities’* on campus.

The police are ‘authorised and directed to give effect to the terms of the order’.

The matter returns to court on 27 October.

After the hearing, Magidela urged students to stop protesting.

That evening, university leaders met the SRC. In a media release on Thursday, the university said the talks had produced* ‘significant convergence on some of the issues’* but that some matters ‘require further financial and operational modelling’.

A further meeting is planned for next week, after which recommendations will be made to the university council.

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**Picture: **Ndimphiwe Mpongoma

Words: Sindisiwe Tshona and Ndimphiwe Mpongoma/GroundUp

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