UFS students demand Jansen's removal

Bloemfontein – University of the Free State Vice Chancellor Jonathan Jansen must be removed from his post, a group of students has demanded.

The students, led by SRC President Lindokuhle Ntuli, also want contract workers to be insourced and for the Shimla Park brawl to be investigated.

All those who had assaulted protesters at the stadium on Monday night should be brought to book.

These were among the demands contained in a memorandum handed to the vice rector of external relations, Dr Choice Makhetha, late on Wednesday.

SA Students Congress Motheo region chairperson Bongani Zwane said Jansen had failed to unite students and had shut down political organisations when he was appointed at the UFS in 2009.

On Monday, a group of students led by the SRC president invaded the field during a Varsity Cup match at Shimla Park Stadium. Spectators ran onto the field and attacked them.

Other demands included that students facing de-registration should be allowed to complete their academic year, and for transformation and "decolonisation" to be fast-tracked.

They wanted campus buildings renamed after black struggle heroes, and for poor students to be given preference for placement, without ignoring the academic criteria already in place.

The university council and senate should also have more black members, they said in the memorandum.

UFS management said they would respond later on Thursday.

Jansen said on Wednesday that he had received death threats.

"I have been accused of putting black student's interests above the white students, and I am also accused of putting white student's interests above blacks. It is all lies, and I think it is the kind of thing people say to unsettle you," Jansen said. 

This article first appeared on News24 – see here.