THE William Pitcher College was forced to close yesterday following students’ riots and vandalism of property.
College Principal Dr. Ntombifuthi Mhlongo told SBIS that students were agitated since Monday, demanding to be paid allowances. She said first year students were unhappy that they had not received their scholarship allowances after Second and Third-Year students were paid last week.
The First Years protested that they too had expected to be paid at the same time as other students. “It was agreed that a deputation of the Student Representative Council approach the ministry of labour to establish progress in the allowances.”
“We are told that at the Ministry they were informed that there is outstanding information in the student files that needs to be completed. When they reported back, students did not accept the explanation and were upset. In light of the disturbed atmosphere, we decided to suspend classes and divert to Online learning platforms.
Dr. Mhlongo said students were not happy with online lessons and on Monday requested to resume face-to-face learning. “We agreed, and opened classes. But once in-class, students erupted in protest. They said they are hungry and would not be able to concentrate. In the riots that followed, the students burnt government property and broke windows. On Wednesday morning they started being violent. That is when we realized that the situation was getting dangerous because students were now heading out of the campus. Our fear is that once on the streets, students were exposed to a number of dangers and potential accidents”.
She said they consulted the ministry of education and closed the college.
“We closed the college as a last resort after assessing the situation. We will always close the college in the event of violence because we know that every parent expects that students under our care are safe. Violence means that no one is safe.”
“What we realize is that students are very impatient. William Pitcher has been very peaceful for the past 3 years. The last time we faced disturbances over students; allowances back in 2021. Our problem this time were delays in scholarship approvals for some of the students. This caused delays in submitting invoices which must include each student’s letter of award. “
Dr. Mhlongo acknowledges the delays in the allowances process. “It’s not something that we can expect students to get overnight. At the same time, we can see the suffering of students is real. We also realize that many of the students are poor. We were able to mitigate this problem in the past by providing meals at the college cafeteria. But we had to discontinue this system because students demanded that they needed allowances to be paid into their hands. Year One students were not a problem before because they had access to food. The kitchen is closed since 2021 when students demanded to access their allowances directly.”
“We need to appeal to parents to do whatever little they can to support their children in college. It hurts us very much when the college is closed because this means that students are missing lessons”, she said.
Jm/today/10.10.2024
