Rhodes University management has urged staff members to continue with their duties as normal, as protesting students attempted to bring a complete academic shut-down into effect at the university today.
Rhodes University management has urged staff members to continue with their duties as normal, as protesting students attempted to bring a complete academic shut-down into effect at the university today.
University spokesperson Catherine Deiner said in a statement that the academic programme and operations of the university would continue today.
Deiner said university management acknowledges the student protest action, adding that, staff are advised to remain calm and not to be confrontational if the students disrupt their work.
"The university maintains that while students have the right to protest, these actions may not infringe on the rights of others," she said.
Students were outraged after a statement made by Rhodes University Vice Chancellor Sizwe Mabizela about the protests that have been ongoing since Sunday night, 17 April, when a list of current and former students who had allegedly raped other students was circulated on social media.
He made the statement on the steps in front of the administration building around 4pm yesterday,18 April.
Mabizela gave in to many of the demands, such as keeping the Health Care and Counselling Centres open at all times, and creating a task force of both students and faculty that would work to fix any problems in the way that sexual assaults were handled on campus.
However, he expressed sadness that the definition of rape in the Constitution is not broad enough for him or for the students. Under law, it must be established that a man intended to commit a rape. Neither Mabizela nor the students liked this definition. Mabizela offered to work with the legal faculty to make test cases to support a change in the Constitution.
Mabizela also refused to punish the men named on the list of alleged rapists, and upheld the men’s Constitutional rights to a fair trial. The crowd was unhappy with these outcomes, and many women were in tears at the end of the statement. “The rapists were more protected than the victims,” said one of the students present.
The protesters disbanded and regathered at 7pm, where one of the protest leaders addressed the crowd. “We will not rest until they commit to meeting those demands,” she said, to applause. They also discussed a vote of no confidence in Mabizela.
The students put up barricades and proceeded to sing and dance their way through campus, gaining supporters as they went. In the early hours of the morning, the Rhodes Student Representative Council released a statement that there would be a full academic shut-down of campus on Tuesday.
They maintained their position that the Vice Chancellor must change the definition of rape and they wanted to know the details of the task force that he promised.
One of the student organisers said they were still planning a way forward following today's protest.
"We are still discussing and planning a way forward, we can't say what the next step is at the moment. But we are not happy with how the university is dealing with rape cases.
"Students are not satisfied and that is why today students disrupted some classes. Some of the students are in classes and other are not. That is the reason we disrupted classes.
"At the moment there is nothing clear or transparent on whether we are going to meet the management or not," said the student.
Protesting students held a number of their fellow students captive against their will on Sunday night after a list identifying alleged rapists emerged on student social media pages.
Grahamstown residents woke up to protests yesterday, which had reportedly been going on since Sunday evening. When Grocott's Mail arrived at the scene of a student protest in Hill Street yesterday morning, a small group was being addressed by Grahamstown police.
Deiner confirmed that the protesting students had held a number of students against their will until management and police intervened and ensured that the students were released.
Deiner said a list of names of current and past students had been released on the RU Queer Confessions, Questions and Crushes Facebook site with the hashtag #RUReferenceList on Sunday night, 17 April.
She said the post was shared to the Rhodes University SRC Facebook Page. Following this, a call was made to students to meet at the Steve Biko Building. Deiner said the group of protesters gathered at the SRC Offices.
"They proceeded from there to various residences and entered Jan Smuts, Calata, Cullen Bowles, Goldfields, and Graham House in an attempt to find the students whose names appeared on the list," she said.
A few students were held by the group, according to Deiner. Mabizela and the Director of Student Affairs tried to engage with the protesters at Cullen Bowles, Graham House and again at the Drama Department; however these attempts failed, according to Deiner.
Deiner said Mabizela had engaged with students on Sunday night and during the early hours of Monday morning, instructing the protesting group to release a student who remained held against his will, and told the students they were breaking the law.
"At 8am a student was still being held against their will and the SAPS assisted in resolving this situation," she said.
Grahamstown police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said they were monitoring the situation. "We have facilitated the release of a student. No case has been opened by the individual. We are in a monitoring role," she said.
