On 25 August, UP suspended at least 7 members of the SRC, including the president, Thuto Mashile, and secretary general, Tarik Lalla. In an official statement released on 26 August by SASCO leadership, they stated that “SASCO UP strongly condemns the ‘Vice Chancellor’ of the University Tawana Kupe’s draconian decision to illegally suspend 7 members of the SRC from the University for fighting against the dramatic, drastic, non-sensical, foolish and elitist increment of tuition fees”.
A few hours after the suspension, Lalla told PDBY, “We don’t stop the fight. They can suspend leaders, but they can’t suspend ideas. The fact is that, me, I knew the risks when I signed up for this. But the fact remains, University of Pretoria will decrease, or will not increase, its registration fees. That is the commitment that we’re going to follow throughout.”
PDBY spoke to Rikus Delport, the Director for the Department of Institutional Advancement, about the suspensions. Delport stated that the reason for the suspension could not be shared as disciplinary processes are confidential, but said that “suspensions are based on breaches of the disciplinary code for students. We have said publicly that the University, as a last resort, temporarily suspended the student leaders pending an appeal. At the same time we said that these temporary suspensions will be lifted immediately when the students are apologetic and commit to avoiding all actions that disrupt teaching and learning and all operational activities of the university. Management is always open to constructive and fact based engagement with the SRC on all matters affecting students.”
On 31 August, the suspensions were lifted.
I’m Kirsten, a law student who loves writing, making spreadsheets and consuming an unhealthy amount of caffeine.
I love writing about student issues and current events.
Oh my this is awkward. Having to tell you who I am is a whole ordeal because I am still trying to figure that out myself lol. The most I know at this point is that, I am an unhinged hillbilly from a small town in Northern Kwa-Zulu Natal; My first love had “Petronella” as a middle name (gross right?); I will on occasion get dressed in a onesie, using my red blankie as a cape to live out my fantasy of being the caped crusader of justice: Captain Tanuki; Finally, I have an obsession with owls that should get its own section in the DSM-V. On that owl thing, I feel like in one of my many past lives as a shrew somewhere in the world, I met my end to one of those majestic birds and that specific bird reincarnated as my first love who, at the time of writing, has not killed me…yet! Talk about a circle of life, neh. My goals? Well right now, I have but one very simple goal: to be the best human I can possibly be. Achieving that would make a hillbilly like me, a better person and growth is always good. My time at the paper has made sure I stay on this path. Should a lost soul wanting to know about the paper, stumbles across this bio, I want you to know that I will totally be a radically different person in the best way possible. Who knows, I might have reincarnated as an owl, by then.