A poorly attended, but lively debate about the recent Nehawu strike took place on Wednesday at the General Lecture Theatre at Rhodes.
A poorly attended, but lively debate about the recent Nehawu strike took place on Wednesday at the General Lecture Theatre at Rhodes.
The debilitating strike by support staff at Rhodes University might be over, but the bad blood will take a while to wash off.
The discussion was organised by the Women’s Academic Solidarity Association (Wasa) and was attended by academic staff, students and some members of the National Education Health and Workers Union (Nehawu).
Wasa’s Corinne Knowles said their organisation felt that the strike gave a one-sided picture and they decided to open a discussion between the affected parties. Organisers were disappointed however, that only 30 people attended the talk, and even fewer spoke up.
According to Zakade Vena from Nehawu, a court interdict was responsible for the low attendance.
“I am only here to listen and I cannot comment until the court interdict we have with Rhodes is resolved,” Vena said.
Equity
It was announced in the meeting that the vice chancellor earns four times more than lecturers, and far more than support staff. Rhodes Sociology professor Jimi Adesina said that though Rhodes’ residences are well maintained, the ones maintaining them are poorly paid.
“The university talks about equity,” Adesina said, “but when Nehawu strike, they are called irrational and irresponsible and that dehumanises them."
According to him the inequity will always exist if one person earns R50 000 per month and 10% of that is given to the rest. Nehawu did not only strike for money, Adesina said, but also to be valued as human beings.
Rhodes Journalism professor Lynette Steenveld said that Rhodes is not only to blame and that people should bear in mind that we have a capitalist government whose control of the economy skews the debate about wages.
Racism
Knowles also said that the issue of racism is alive at Rhodes. She reiterated this by pointing to the fact that “during Inter-Varsity a lecturer was called a nigger”.
According to some students, there is a permanent wall between black and white people at Rhodes.
“Some students don’t understand what it means to be black,” announced one student, while another said the university often ignores the existence of racism.
Students also expressed empathy towards Nehawu members and proposed that a memorandum of their support should be sent out to the workers.
