FILE PHOTO: Containers where students are expected to sleep in while renovations are being dine at the Cedara College. PICTURE: Lerato Mnguni/The Republic Mail
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0 PIETERMARITZBURG: A parent who also asked not to be named said he had to go and fetch his child at around 6pm on Tuesday.
Some of the students spent hours on the streets waiting for their parents to pick them up, while others were taken in by residents who live near the college.
Students from Cedara College of Agriculture, out of Pietermaritzburg, had to spend hours on the streets on Tuesday night after they were chased out of the college for embarking on a protest.
The order to chase over a hundred students out of the college and close it allegedly came from MEC for Agriculture and rural development, Mr Supa Zuma, who accused the students of misbehaving during a worker’s month commemoration event which took place at Cedara Sportsfield on Tuesday.
Some of the students spent hours on the streets waiting for their parents to pick them up, while others were taken in by residents who live nearby the college.
The students started protesting on Monday, complaining about their living conditions and the state of the college. They claim that about 80 male students are staying at the mobile units and are sharing five bathrooms.
Speaking to The Republic Mail students said they were moved to mobile units about three years ago when the college was doing renovations but till today renovations are not done.
An SRC member who asked not to be named in fear of victimisation said: “We do not understand why we were chased because we were not violent. We just wanted the MEC to address us on the issues that we have been raising since last year and the beginning of this year. They called a security on us and we were chased out like dogs.
“There are students who are coming from far as Mpumalanga, Pongola and Mzimkhulu, how were they expecting those students to get home by that time? What they did was inhumane,” he said.
Another student said they were not even informed when they are expected to go back to college because no one told them anything.
“This is not fair because before we embarked on a strike we followed all the proper channels and the SRC have been submitting our grievances but we never got a proper response. We are tired of living under such conditions. The mobile units are as small as an office but you had to share it with someone else.
“We do not even know when this contractor will finish the renovations because they stopped working a year ago and left everything like that. Now that they have decided to close the college, what is going to happen to our academics?” he said.
A parent who also asked not to be named said he had to go and fetch his child at around 6pm on Tuesday.
“Nothing was communicated to us as parents. We do not know what is happening. Yesterday (Tuesday) I had to take other six students home with me because they are from far because they had nowhere to go. These students were chased because they were raising the real-life issues.”
Department of Agriculture and Rural Development spokesperson, Mr Vusi Zuma confirmed that the teaching and learning has been suspended and students were sent back home.
He said the department took a decision after seeing that the students were becoming violent and others threatening to burn cars.
“We had to act fast in the interest of safety and security because not all of the students were protesting. They were demanding to see the MEC on their own terms and even the issues that they were raising, we have never heard them before as the department.
“We are going to have a meeting with the parents to discuss the grievances and we will have to reach an agreement regarding the reopening of the college,” said Mr Zuma.
Mr Zuma added that the college is being renovated and the service provider has not finished the job which is why they organised mobile units for students, which he claimed to be comfortable.
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