Johannesburg - The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) has become the latest institution to join the much-talked-about national shutdown organised by the EFF.
This comes after a recent media statement by the UKZN Student Representative Council (SRC), which urged its members to join the much-anticipated march set for March 20.
The SRC has called on everyone to join the march aimed at putting pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa to resign over energy challenges, the rising cost of living and other socio-economic challenges in the country.
Other parties and trade unions that have since joined the march include the SA Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu), Carl Niehaus’s Areta (African Radical Economic Transformation Alliance) movement and the United Democratic Movement.
Before the march, some members of the EFF reportedly warned all small businesses and factories to close on March 20, which is the day of its planned national shutdown, or risk being looted.
In a video, party members were captured announcing the shutdown on the back of a bakkie via a loudspeaker.
“We are saying to you: close down all your businesses to avoid the looting. Close down all your shops to avoid looting. Close down all your factories to avoid looting.”
The SRC said it was disappointed by this year’s registration period, which resulted in students being unable to begin their academic year on time.
“Students suffered immensely during this registration period due to financial constraints, a lack of infrastructure to house the number of students who need accommodation, and the online registration in the era of Stage 6 load shedding, to mention a few. These are issues that are not over and above the government’s ability to fix,” SRC president Wandile Majozi said.
Majozi said their call for students to join the national shutdown was influenced by these issues as well as Ramaphosa’s failed regime, which continues to fail students and citizens of the country at large.
“Students must join the national shutdown because, under the administration led by Ramaphosa, unemployment is at an all-time high. When Cyril Ramaphosa started his term of office, he promised the citizens of South Africa employment. When he failed to live up to expectations, he went on national television in 2022 and told the country that the government does not intend to create jobs because it is not the responsibility of the government to create jobs,” Majozi said.
He added that a lack of jobs directly affected students who spent years acquiring knowledge only to not find employment.
“This is a problem for the youth of SA because it means that after completing their qualifications, there are high chances that they will be unemployed. Students spend three to four years —and even more than that — only to add to the statistics of what are now term ‘unemployed graduates’… It is because of this reason, among many others, that we support the call for his immediate resignation as president of South Africa,” he said.
The Star