20/12/2024
Revolutionary greetings Future leaders and commanders
Immediate Release: 20 December 2024
Students Accommodation for the 2025 Academic Year UWC
The uMkhonto weSizwe Students Movement (MKSM) acknowledges the revolutionary students who have ascended to the next level of their academic journey. We recognize the courage, resilience, and persistent commitment of the student populace in their struggle for academic excellence. At MKSM, we pride ourselves on our unwavering dedication to the broad empowerment of students. However, we remain in undomesticated solidarity with those who have not been promoted due to systemic frustrations, deeply entrenched challenges that continue to undermine their educational aspirations. These frustrations extends from inadequate financial support, low standard residential services, and the lack of nutritional assistance are a direct consequence of the legacy of apartheid era structures that continues in our institutions today.
We stand firm in the belief that these prejudice conditions must be disassembled in this journey for total free and decolonised education.
We find ourselves today in this mess because of the previous EFFSC-led SRC lack of leadership and accountability. Students are left in a perennial state of anxiety and uncertainty regarding their accommodation for the 2025 academic year . The university failure to arrange and allocate bed spaces in time is forcing many students into the hands of unscrupulous private landlords who profit from dilapidated, unsafe, and criminal-infested environments. The very lives of our students are at risk due to the security issues in areas like Belhar, where students are subjected to exploitation and danger. This is not just an inconvenience but an existential threat to the safety and well-being of our students populace . We call on the current SASCO led SRC to rise up and act decisively! The time for empty promises and bureaucratic inaction is over.
The ongoing renovations at Cassinga Residence are a gladly welcome initiative , but they are blatantly inadequate given the scale of the crisis facing students across all residences and this initiative must be done in all students residences. The renovation timeline should not become a barrier preventing students from returning to their rightful homes away from homes . We demand that the university accelerates these renovations, ensuring that students returning to Cassinga and other students residences will find a safe, secure, and dignified environment promotive to academic aspirations and goals . The university must prioritise speed, quality, and efficiency in the renovation process, leaving no student stranded in subhuman conditions for even a day longer than necessary. No student must be forced to leave their academic pursuits due to unoccupied living conditions.
Furthermore, we demand action from the SRC to prepare for the accommodation of students returning early for SDA. Every student deserves and best fit to return to a safe, clean, and secure environment in which they can focus mainly on their academic and developmental responsibilities. There will be no compromise on the safety and dignity of our comrades, not while we remain vigilant, resolute, and uncompromising in the face of this institutional negligence.
To those students who have been allocated accommodation that fails to meet their needs or expectations are urged to appeal the decision at UWC residential services website. please find the link below.
https://residentialservices.uwc.ac.za/Account/Login
Together, we will reclaim our university from the shackles of mismanagement and we remain committed to the struggles of the students. Loko mintirho yi nga vulavuli hita yi vulavurisa!
MKSM spokesperson and Head of Media & Communications
Email: [email protected]
Contact no: +27 65 578 5596
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