06/11/2015
Ihron
Lester Rensburg
Vice-Chancellor
University
of Johannesburg
South
Africa
Solidarity to UJ workers and
Students
Protest Letter
The
Education Rights Campaign (ERC) writes to protest the use of police and security to attack protesting workers (cleaners,
gardeners, maintenance, kitchen and other domestic staff) at your University.
The Education Rights Campaign (ERC) is a group based
in Nigeria that fights against fees and for a free, public-funded and
democratically-managed education. We also promote and defend democratic rights
of education workers and students. We are the Nigerian equivalent of the
Socialist Youth Movement (SYM) which is playing crucial role in the struggles
of students and workers in South Africa.
The workers’ protest at UJ is an outgrowth of
the students #FeesMustFall protest a few weeks ago and it is to demand an end
to outsourcing and improvement in pay and conditions. One of the most exciting
features of the recent student protests – the October student uprising, that
won an enormous success in forcing the ANC government to agree to a 0% fee
increase in 2016 – was the outstretched hand of students to university workers.
On many campuses workers joined the students in the protests. In reality a
rebellion of both students and workers has played out over recent months.
Workers at UJ earn as little as R2, 900 ($210)
per month. When outsourcing was introduced workers were deprived of many rights
including the right for their children to study for free at the Universities
the workers clean and maintain.
We are surprised that whilst the University of
Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand have now been forced to agree
to end outsourcing, your University is not only bent on continuing with this
neo-liberal and anti-poor agenda but you are also determined to discipline the
workers for their audacity. This was why on Wednesday 4 November 2015, public
order police were deployed to attack protesting workers. In the process, one
workers leg was broken. Also on Thursday 5 November 2015, police were used
against workers again.
We are aware that your management obtained an
interdict banning protests within 700 meters of the university and the right to
claim the costs of the judgment from the workers. You also emulated the
authoritarianism of the apartheid regime by banning demonstrations on campus thus
forcing workers to protest outside locked gates in front of armed police.
Your management also refused
to deal with the workers committee elected by the workers to represent
themselves and will only deal with the discredited trade union that did nothing
about outsourcing for years.
The right to protest is an internationally
recognised right. Your attacks on workers constitute an infringement on their
democratic rights. We demand that you desist forthwith from attacking your
workers and immediately meet all their demands. We demand:
·
An
end to repression – for the right to protest
· Lift the interdict
· End outsourcing
· Deal directly with the
workers committee
In the weeks to come, the ERC shall campaign
within the students’ movement and labour movement in Nigeria for solidarity actions
to compel you to respect the rights of your workers and students.
Thank you,
Hassan Taiwo Soweto Michael Ogundele
National Coordinator (07033697259) National Secretary
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