The survival of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as a force in South African academics is under threat as student violence continues year-on-year, causing irreparable harm in the eyes of the public, potential students, current students, staff and donors.

This year alone, according to the institution, it had already registered R31-million in damages.

This is as a result of a relatively small group of angry, destructive students who appear to be leaderless and comfortable with criminal behaviour, relying on the most base of human instincts to try achieve their demands.

Daily Maverick spoke to more than a dozen people for the purposes of this article. The majority were reluctant to be named, saying they feared for their safety, the safety of their children or the security of their jobs.

The protests at UKZN have been recorded almost annually for the good part of a decade, with the more recent demands including debt relief for non-NSFAS students, safe and affordable student accommodation, funding for previous NSFAS beneficiaries now doing postgraduate studies, and that students who have been excluded on the basis of poor results be allowed to continue studying.

With almost every flare-up, the spoils are the same: registration is delayed, infrastructure and private property are damaged, the academic calendar is temporarily suspended and running battles take place between campus security, police and some students.

During the violent #FeesMustFall movement over 2015 and 2016, UKZN was estimated to have recorded R262-million in damages.

No matter how unrealistic some of the student demands may be, or have been in the past, the university, like others across the country, has been forced to negotiate and make concessions due to a lack of consistency in the position of national government regarding free education.

“It seems the theory is that if there is violence and potential harm to others, management has the responsibility to protect both property and others. In this instance, they are forced to negotiate with room for more concessions,” former UKZN lecturer, political commentator and PhD candidate Lukhona Mnguni told Daily Maverick.

Another lecturer, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, told Daily Maverick that the university faced multiple threats to its revenue, meaning the ability to offer quality education to students across all spectrums, including those from poorer households, was being severely affected.

The university has reported that 78% of its students are from homes that earn less than R350,000 a year.

UKZN has put in place measures to ensure that no student has to pay 100% of his or her debt in 2020. The maximum amount payable has been capped at R45,000 per student, and 67% of students have been asked to pay a maximum of R10,000 towards their individual debt, according to the organisation.

In January, higher education minister Blade Nzimande said that funds owed to universities by non-NSFAS students could not be absorbed by the government. Possible funding opportunities lay with the private sector, he added.

But, said the lecturer, the national government would probably bow to student demands for political reasons, while private funding and endowments were diminishing as a result of a poor economy and the worry that donating would be “justifying the criminal behaviour” of some students.

(Daily Maverick made contact with the head of the UKZN Foundation, Professor Anesh Singh, to confirm or deny a decline in donations, but Singh said he was unable to speak unless authorised to do so. Thereafter, he did not respond to messages.)

“University management is weak,” said the lecturer.

“They are good academics, but they don’t know how to run institutions. They are having to bend over backwards to accommodate student demands, and if they were to come down hard on the students, government would come down hard on them.”

He said the current violence was reminiscent of apartheid South Africa when National Party “storm troopers” would disrupt meetings because they knew there would be no consequences.

The lecturer’s sentiments are shared by well-known UKZN-based researcher Mary de Haas.

“The ringleaders responsible for the mayhem on UKZN campuses would probably be the first to shout anti-colonialism slogans, but little do they know that their thuggish tactics were pioneered by the apartheid regime in the pre-1994 period,” said De Haas in a letter to the editor that she forwarded to Daily Maverick.

Back then, said De Haas, the instigators of the violence that were egged on by apartheid handlers were usually “weak students who were not going to make the grade academically”.

“However, the scale of destruction was nowhere near what we are seeing now and, although it poses new challenges — especially given the size of the merged university — I believe that, in the light of my own experience, it could have been far better handled than it has been thus far.”

Daily Maverick was told by a reliable source that at least two of the private corporations that once sent their staff for further education at UKZN were no longer doing so as they could not risk the safety of their employees or the possibility that the quality of qualifications had “diminished”.

Some of the parents of students at the institution told Daily Maverick they were “gatvol” at what they perceived to be government and management indulging “dangerous” and “criminal behaviour” at a public institution.

Said one mother:

“When I see on the news or hear from my son about what is going on, I am terrified, especially because we aren’t near him. We trust that the university will look after him and he will be safe, but after last week and what happened [when a professor was assaulted], they have no respect, really and truly. I worry about it every day, but we can’t afford to send him somewhere else.

“I feel the students are entitled. Everybody else must pay. We can’t have our debt cancelled. I do feel sorry for the students who can’t afford to study, I do understand. We battle to pay [our son’s] fees and to run our home, but at the end of the day, it’s about a commitment we made and sacrifices we made to better our children. I can be sympathetic that some people can’t afford it, but I can’t agree with the way they are going about it.”

Another mother told Daily Maverick her daughter had to “run for her life” when bricks were being thrown during a recent protest, but she was unable to send her to another institution. “UKZN is the best we can do with the money we have.”

Other parents said they had tried to apply for grants, but had been turned down.

“People hear our surname and they think that we are white, which immediately excludes us. The poor students get everything handed to them on a plate and some of them still act this way.”

A masters student who works in the private sector told Daily Maverick she had to visit the Howard College campus recently and found it “deeply unsettling” to see police and armed security patrolling the grounds.

Some of the students involved in the protests (all claiming pacifism) insisted that the “troublemakers” were very likely non-students, but admitted they had no evidence to back this up.

Mnguni told Daily Maverick that the very nature of mass action had “a tendency to invite opportunistic elements that can be rogue and manifest themselves through violence and other disruptive forms of engagement not necessarily part of the protest repertoire”.

“There have also been some claims from students (especially during #FeesMustFall) that private security companies could be involved in acts of sabotage as a way to increase their contractual obligations with universities.

“However, in the recent protests at UKZN, it seems students are directly involved, masked with bandannas wrapped as balaclavas. This is so because the masked people tend to be within the vicinity of the protest.”

Other students involved in the protests told Daily Maverick that their peers “never” turned to violence “unless they are provoked”.

This is, however, not true. This journalist, and many others, have been on UKZN campuses several times during protest action and seen students hurl rocks and bricks at police and university security without being provoked.

A fee-paying first-year student who also spoke on condition that he not be named told Daily Maverick: “I would not be here if my parents could afford to send me somewhere else.

“I worry about the quality of my degree. I can sympathise with the protesting students, but their methods are wrong. I do not feel safe on campus, even with the private security that has been beefed up, and [the presence of] police. I really worry about the value of my degree, it worries me every hour of every day.”

Other non-fee-paying students said much the same thing. They too told Daily Maverick they understood the frustration of their peers, and found the protests necessary “to get the attention of management”, but added that their studies and attempts to “better ourselves” had been “[taken] hostage” by “a group of thugs” and “fools” who took part in “criminal” acts. 

They said they also worried about the credibility of their degrees and “really worried” about time lost. They too spoke to Daily Maverick on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

A second-year student completing a degree in the sciences said if she could afford to leave UKZN and finish her degree at another institution, she would do so “right now”, because of the disruptions.

Asked how her lecturers addressed the protests and the acts of violence, she replied:

“They don’t. It’s like we are just supposed to carry on like nothing is happening.”

The young woman said that she had not been intimidated or hurt during any of the protests because “I know where to go, there are places [the protesting students] don’t go. One guy was actually quite apologetic after he bumped me once.”

But it wasn’t all negative among the students Daily Maverick spoke to. Second-year Bcom student Reyhaan Ebrahim, based at UKZN’s Westville campus, said he tried to maintain a positive outlook despite the challenges.

“When the protests start and lectures are suspended, I’m left the whole day at campus, stranded. I was uncertain whether to attend lectures because eventually once the protest starts, we’d be kicked out.

“Sometimes the lectures continue and I am not there so I am missing out on work… which is hard to catch up on.”

Ebrahim said he had not been physically affected by the violence during protests but had “a few friends that have actually got injured due to the whole commotion and panic”.

He also told Daily Maverick he had never considered studying elsewhere as he was content with his results and enjoyed his circle of friends.

Asked about the credibility of his degree, Ebrahim responded:

“I always like to think positively, so I hope the issues get sorted out. The vice-chancellor sent us a very relieving message about how the protest action won’t dictate the future [of UKZN], so yes, I do feel I will still have a credible degree qualification.”

SRC president Sifiso Simelane told Daily Maverick that any violence during protests or any acts of intimidation or harassment had absolutely nothing to do with student leadership.

“We have openly said to students that violence will not be tolerated,” he said.

“We want the government to intervene in the impasse between us and management. We have spoken to provincial government and we have also met the national administrator for NSFAS. We have been in meetings with the minister of higher education.

“We don’t know why things have stalled. The minister currently came here and met the management without us as student representatives. We wrote to them again and said the impasse would [not end] if they only met with one side.

“We were told that if we wanted to know why we weren’t invited to the meeting, we must ask the Department of Higher Education. So those two (management and higher education) are fighting, and we don’t know what is happening currently.”

Simelane also reiterated that in order to have “proper engagement with the council”, which was difficult while “this violence” was continuing, the academic programme should be suspended.

He said he was concerned about the “integrity of the institution, the violence, and the burning of buildings”.

“We know that the integrity of the institution is under attack, but we don’t want a situation whereby the focus is solely going to be around the violence and the burning of buildings. What is required of you as journalists and media houses is to try to expose the source of what is happening. This violence, it can’t be tolerated. Those people who are responsible must be prosecuted.”

The violence was also a reflection of the competence of UKZN’s security, he said.

“Risk Management Services is not fit enough to deal with the issues.”

He asked why management could not “plan” for “[the violence] they know is going to happen every year. Every year in January there is burning of buildings”.

He said parents “needed to understand” that the protests were “not the fault of the SRC or students”.

“Universities have got management. If you have management that can’t take decisions, if you have management that says whatever happens they are willing to proceed [with the academic programme], then parents must direct their anger towards the management, not the student leaders.”

Daily Maverick sent several questions to UKZN and agreed to requests for two extensions. The university did not respond to the questions, despite saying it would do so, but it did send a statement to Daily Maverick suggesting it be considered for an 0p-ed.

In the supplied op-ed, UKZN vice-chancellor professor Nana Poku said if the institution was to cancel the historical debt of the students, “it would plunge our institution into a financial crisis so deep that we would be forced to close our doors to thousands—an outcome that will be detrimental to the University, the communities we serve, our economy and our country”.

The debt amounts to R1.7-billion. DM