Wits Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC), who led a student march to the offices of the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements and the City of Johannesburg municipality on Friday September 1 to protest against the accommodation crisis faced by students, said they were disappointed that MEC Paul Mashatile and Mayor Herman Mashaba were not available to personally receive their memorandum of demands.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe MEC hasn\u2019t been at work, he\u2019s off sick. He\u2019s not the kind of person that runs away,\u201d Keith Khoza, of the department of Human Settlements, who received and signed the memorandum on behalf of Mashatile told the #AccommodationIsLand protestors.\u00a0Khoza said that the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements was looking for solutions to the student accommodation problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been talking to one of our entities called the Gauteng Partnership Fund to look at how we can work with universities in providing student accommodation because it\u2019s at crisis level. Gauteng has more universities than any other province and it still attracts more people. So we have to find a solution,\u201d said Khoza.\u00a0\u201cWe will be engaging the city of Johannesburg to look at the buildings that are abandoned in Johannesburg to see how they can be converted to accommodation for people of Johannesburg,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mashaba\u2019s spokesperson, Simangaliso Shongwe, who received and signed the memorandum on behalf of the mayor, said, \u201cI\u2019ll just give the memo to the mayor and respond to grievances within 14 days.\u201d\u00a0Shongwe told Wits Vuvuzela that \u201cissues of students are a genuine cause and we understand where they are coming from and the issues of accommodation. But having said that, the issues you know that are intergovernmental relations between national and provincial and local government, but we will look into that.<\/p>\n
Secretary of the EFFSC Wits branch Oredireste Masebe said \u201cThe door opener and coffee maker of Herman Mashaba does not have any powers. It is a sign of arrogance that students after suffering from landlessness and homelessness must now come and be deprioritised by Herman Mashaba. He is not in Cape Town, he is in Joburg.
\n\u201cWe gave them ample time to prepare for our arrival there and their absence is not a coincidence. Their absence is intentional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Sizwe Kekana, a third year Bcom logistics and management student at the University of Johannesburg said, \u201c For years students have been sleeping in libraries some have been sleeping in toilets, which affects their ability to study.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve been in engagements with the University of Johannesburg and the University of the Witwatersrand and we are now here to submit the memorandum to the mayor of Johannesburg to show how agitating this issue is.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPaul Mashatile we know was not in his office, it is undermining us and we condemn that in the highest sense,\u201d he said.\u00a0Chairperson of the EFFSC Wits branch, Koketso Poho, addressing the crowd said, \u201cOur demand is that accommodation is expensive; how they fix it we don\u2019t care. We just want it to be cheap and affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n