The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba], National Health and Allied Workers Union [NEHAWU] and the South African Students' Congress [SASCO] have been following the developments at the University of South Africa [UNISA] very closely for the past three years.
It has since came to our attention that things have been going wrong for a long time under the leadership of Professor Barney Pityana with any credible intervention from him and the Council
This year with have witnessed an onslaught on more than 20 000 working class students who have been refused to write their mid-year examinations, while those who are allowed to write find themselves without study material to prepare for their examinations
This we believe is as a result of the banning of the SRC and all student organisations who would have acted as the mouthpiece of students in finding a better way of handling the crisis
We have therefore decided to mobilise both workers and students to join in the mass action commencing from this Thursday across UNISA Regional Centers to force Prof Pityana to resign as the Vice-Chancellor of UNISA
We therefore call for the immediate resignation of Professor Pityana.
We also want to reiterate the following issues:
· The University Council and the Senior Management of UNISA has not responded to several Memoranda presented by the Progressive Youth Alliance and stakeholders of UNISA,
· We are aware, arising from our meeting with the Minister of Higher Education, that UNISA has confirmed that they will allow students who were being excluded to write examinations will be allowed. However, it seems the University is not prepared to live up to their commitment to the Minister.
· The fracas at UNISA Business where one of Pityana's lapdogs wants to refuse the Minister of Higher Education entry at the institution.
All of these leave us with no other option but to render UNISA ungovernable until Pityana voluntarily resigns or the University Council shows commitments towards firing him.
Statement issued by YCLSA, NEHAWU and SASCO, May 18 2009
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