TWELVE members of the North-West University student representative council (SRC) have spent the past three nights sleeping outside the gates of the institution after they were suspended.
They have vowed to camp there until management accedes to their demand. They have pitched tents at the entrance to the Mahikeng campus.
The students, who are mostly members of the South African Student Congress staged sit-ins on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were suspended and thrown out of the institution on Friday.
They staged the sit-ins demanding the university management reduce the fees for temporary accommodation to first years until orientation and registration were over.
Students who wanted to stay a night at the hostels had to pay R100, which the SRC felt was too high. They also wanted management to reduce this year's 12% increment of campus residential fees to 5.7%.
Last week they said they asked for a response but to no avail.
They waited at the dean's office until midnight but were instead handed suspension letters. They were escorted from the campus by security guards and prevented from re-entering.
SRC president Lebogang Molopyane said they were frustrated with the treatment.
"We are suspended for fighting for the rights of our students ... we will continue to camp here until they answer to our demands," Molopyane said.
He said not one member of the SRC was still at the university.
The students said they were not happy with the way management handled their suspensions and claimed they had communicated with management from the start.
University spokesman Koos Degenaar said their provisional suspension is pending an investigation and disciplinary inquiry of the students' conduct. If they are found guilty they could be expelled.
Degenaar said the university was committed to a smooth registration process and would not tolerate any action disrupt the academic year.
'We won't leave'
TWELVE members of the North-West University student representative council (SRC) have spent the past three nights sleeping outside the gates of the institution after they were suspended.
They have vowed to camp there until management accedes to their demand. They have pitched tents at the entrance to the Mahikeng campus.
The students, who are mostly members of the South African Student Congress staged sit-ins on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were suspended and thrown out of the institution on Friday.
They staged the sit-ins demanding the university management reduce the fees for temporary accommodation to first years until orientation and registration were over.
Students who wanted to stay a night at the hostels had to pay R100, which the SRC felt was too high. They also wanted management to reduce this year's 12% increment of campus residential fees to 5.7%.
Last week they said they asked for a response but to no avail.
They waited at the dean's office until midnight but were instead handed suspension letters. They were escorted from the campus by security guards and prevented from re-entering.
SRC president Lebogang Molopyane said they were frustrated with the treatment.
"We are suspended for fighting for the rights of our students ... we will continue to camp here until they answer to our demands," Molopyane said.
He said not one member of the SRC was still at the university.
The students said they were not happy with the way management handled their suspensions and claimed they had communicated with management from the start.
University spokesman Koos Degenaar said their provisional suspension is pending an investigation and disciplinary inquiry of the students' conduct. If they are found guilty they could be expelled.
Degenaar said the university was committed to a smooth registration process and would not tolerate any action disrupt the academic year.
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