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On Friday 21 October 2016 at 8 a.m. there will be a picket at the University of Johannesburg’s Soweto Campus. The picket is organized by the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee on behalf of concerned parents who live in Soweto and other parts of the country. The purpose of the picket is to declare our support for the students’ struggle for free education and university workers for an end to outsourcing and a living wage.

As parents and community members we are concerned about what is happening to our children and fellow workers in the country’s universities. We stand fully behind the university students and workers’ movement.

We are opposed to the state repression and police brutality that is being unleashed on the students. Many students have been arrested and the courts are refusing them bail. This is totally unacceptable and takes us back to the days of apartheid.

Our organization fights for free basic services for all which include water, electricity, housing, healthcare, education and public transport. We believe every member of the working class and the poor should have free access to quality services that are provided by the state.

It is the working class that produces the wealth of society. Why should workers pay twice for the services they produce with their own hands?

It is unfair that the majority of workers do not earn a living wage, and many are unemployed or precariously employed. At the same time they are expected to pay large amounts of money to pay for the education of their children.

The current education system is designed to create cheap labour for the capitalists to exploit.

The government can find the money to pay for free education from crèche to university by taxing the rich. Company tax must increase to fund education. The government must stop capital flight where billions of rands leave our economy every year. It must scrap the nuclear deal.

We call on all parents, academics, students, trade unions, political parties, community organisations, churches and social movements to support the struggle of the university workers and students.

Viva #FeesMustFall!  Viva #OutsourcingMustFall! Forward to #CapitalismMustFall!

Issued by Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee / Operation Khanyisa Movement