COSATU supports University of Johannesburg students

By Celeste Ganga
16 October 2007

The Gauteng Province of the Congress of South African Trade Unions supports the students of the University of Johannesburg in rejecting the 14% increase in fees for first-year students and 8% for second and third-year students, which the university management have imposed.

“COSATU’s policy is based on the Freedom Charter, which is proclaimed that education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit,” says COSATU National spokesperson, Patrick Craven.

Craven explains that the fee levels imposed by the University of Johannesburg, Wits and other institutions fly in the fact of this demand.

“They make higher education impossible for thousands of children of African and working-class families and are against the mandate to transform education in the interest of the majority,” says Craven.

COSATU Gauteng is applying for a Section 77 Notice to authorise it to mobilise its members and the communities in a socio-economic strike against the fee increases at all tertiary institutions.