The South African Federation of Trade Unions calls for the resolution of the dispute of Walter Sisulu University staff, who have been on strike since 29th May 2018, after exhausting a series of negotiations and dispute resolution mechanisms with the management of the institution.  

Currently there are no negotiations between the unions and the management. Attempts by the head of mediation at the CCMA failed because the university management refused to engage. The last attempt by the CCMA was on 14th June 2018.

The WSU management has since been trying everything in the book to divide workers. For example they have signed an illegal agreement with the NEHAWU branch in Mthatha in order to break the strike. They have implemented the no-work no-pay selectively.

The WSU management has negotiated in bad faith throughout the process.

WSU management has demonstrated that it does not have the interests of the university at heart. They are not interested in any solution of the strike because the victims of the instability are going to be mainly black students from poor and working-class backgrounds.

The current impasse is very destructive for workers and students. This resulted in mid-year term assessments, including final examinations, not being written.  
 

• The impasse affects students in different ways as illustrated below:
• Some students have to go for work-integrated-learning as a requirement for their academic programmes
• Some are to graduate in September, which they cannot under the current impasse
• Some will need to use the mid-term results as a form of progress report in order for their funders to pay the final part of their fees.  Linked to this is also that some will use mid-term reports to seek financial assistance in the form of bursaries and scholarships, which they cannot at this point in time
• Some will not be able to apply using the mid-term academic report to apply to further their studies
• Importantly notional hours that students are required to complete in order to graduate are at risk. At the beginning of year, the students were on strike for approximately five weeks, now  coupled with weeks lost due to staff strike action. There is a high risk that programmes will be de-accredited due to non-completion of notional hours.  

 
The status quo is that:

• Some campuses - Mthatha, Butterworth and Queenstown - are open after management implemented a divide-and-rule strategy. However, there are no normal operations taking place in these sites.
• Buffalo City Campus has been temporarily closed from 15 June 2018 until further notice
• Some staff members are paid their salaries - Mthatha, Butterworth and Queenstown - whilst Buffalo City Campus staff were not paid.
• The Vice-Chancellor and Principal has prioritised his US vacation, leaving the institution with managers with no delegated authority; hence no decision can be made
• Though the university claims that there are no funds for meeting staff demands, it has opted to militarise all campuses with extra unnecessary security which is taking exorbitant funds away from the university of about R200 000 per day in each campus
• The important positions of Directors of Institutional Research and Planning, Research Development and Quality Assurance have been occupied by Acting Personnel for quite some-time now. These two units cannot function to their maximum whilst acting personnel are at the helm. It is no wonder that DHET penalised WSU for a sum of R15 million for incorrect planning submissions it made. This information was shared by Vice-Chancellor and Principal of WSU at a meeting held in the ANC’s Calata offices, King William’s Town, on 2 June 2018.
• Currently, there are four programmes - Bachelor of Laws, Social Work, ND Civil Engineering. The Bachelor of Social Sciences was never registered with SAQA and Bachelor of Orthotics and Prosthetics is not accredited by the Higher Education Quality Committee or registered with South African Qualifications Authority. The first cohort of students in this programme graduated in 2018. This is happening under the leadership of Vice-Chancellor.   

 
To conclude, we seek urgent intervention to resolve the impasse. The Vice-Chancellor is a leader who lacks passion for this job.  As a leader working across cultures he should have prioritized the resolution of the strike.  He should have been conscious that some students have to undergo cultural rituals like attending circumcision schools in June.
 
Whilst we will approach the management to press for a settlement, we will at same time approach the Minister of Higher Education and the Director General to intervene to force management to negotiate with workers in good faith.
 
Above all we call on the national and provincial government to visit the WSU and see for themselves the conditions under which workers work and the students learn. The whole place is suffering from neglect due to neglect and failure to invest and refurbish its infrastructure.
 
In all that is happening the black poor child and parents are suffering the most.  This behavior of WSU management is in direct conflict with the values of Walter Sisulu, the struggle icon after whom the university is named.
 
Lastly we call for solidarity between workers and students to be intensified. The days of the two fighting isolated battles must come to an end. Students fought gallantly for five weeks and now it is workers being ignored in the same way the students demands were not addressed.

 

Issued by Saftu