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Dr Dirk Hermann, Chief Executive of the Solidarity trade union, addressed university staff, members and other interested parties this week at a workshop in Bloemfontein and his message was, “Occupy and protect your domain.”

Trade union Solidarity organised this workshop to set the process in motion to find solutions for the current spate of campus violence across the country. The objective of this meeting was to garner input from people attending the meeting in order to come up with practical solutions and to discuss the problems experienced by them.

“At a university, the students’ centre of power should be vested with the majority who want to study. A university should never allow students’ centre of power to vest with a minority group of anarchists,” Hermann said.

According to Hermann, the essence of a university is formed by critical thinking. “Universities should not shy away from new ideas. New ideas should be formed through critical thinking,” Hermann said.

After the inputs and discussions at the workshop, Solidarity came up with a short-term proposal. Solidarity will place the University of the Free State on terms in this week. The university has indicated that it will open on Monday, therefore Solidarity will ensure that they abide by this.

Should the university close or concede again, litigation will begin. Solidarity will also request university management to hold a referendum among the majority of students. If they ignore this request, Solidarity will begin with petitioning. Solidarity will also increase is membership base on campus through intensive recruitment processes. Solidarity gave an undertaking to appropriately act as watchdog from this coming Monday, Hermann said.

Issued by Solidarity