University of Limpopo council must act to stop MEDUNSA strike

03 September 2014

The situation at the Medical University of South Africa (MEDUNSA) has reached crisis point and requires drastic action. 

For the past five weeks the majority of students have been unable to attend classes due to a strike called for and enforced by the Student Representative Council (SRC) and other groupings. The strike has entailed violence, extensive damage to property to the tune of millions of rands, and the terrifying intimidation of non-strikers. 

The Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training invited MEDUNSA and its student leadership to appear before it last week and was unconvinced that a solution was imminent. 

I call upon the Council of the University of Limpopo to end the strike and for university leadership to address all students to reassure them that their interests are being addressed. Should the Council fail in this effort, the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, will need to intervene, as a very last resort, to ensure that the law is enforced and that classes resume immediately.

We cannot afford for one of our few medical training facilities to be unable to operate for a single day, let alone weeks on end. MEDUNSA is being held to ransom by an unscrupulous group of students who have protected their own interests at the expense of those of the broader student body. Students fear they will not be able to complete their work for the year, and students who are on bursaries are worried that they will lose their funding. 

These are our future doctors, dentists and nurses and the DA is outraged that the situation has been allowed to deteriorate to this extent. 

Statement issued by Belinda Bozzoli MP, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, September 3 2014

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