CPUT TRC

CPUT TRC and Online Petition

In the wake of the student protests at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology working under the banner of FeesMustFall over the October 2015 to 2016, we saw the political conflict between the demonstrators and the university management over financial exclusions unravel in dramatic flares of politicized violence on behalf of both “sides”. The Protest signified the symbolic plight of exclusion and the depth of pain felt by students following the physically violent and emotionally charged conflict which included the burning of various forms of property which students believed it was Police who burned down those property particularly the bus and Financial aid building in Bellville campus , a handful of 78 students have been charged through several waves of internal and external processes and 2 students are still suspended with no trial of what so ever kind taking place.
70 plus students have pending Court cases that are continuously Postponed in Courts and are accelerating in terms of Court levels from Magistrate – Regional Courts. Staff members are being suspended, Outsourced Workers are being suspended, students are being intimidated with hired killers by securities.
To this effect an overbroad interim interdict granted by Judge through the High court on the night of the 13th November 2015 was made final on the 01 December 2015. After many tiring attempts to make the interdicts withdrawn, which is the very same interdict that resulted in many students being refused access to write exams examination which were rescheduled for the beginning of this year 2016. On the 10 March 2016 Judge Saldhana from High Court then gave a directive this year that all students must be granted an opportunity to write examinations.

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CPUT TRC)

1. Restorative Justice conducted in a manner that includes the university community creates the opportunity for dialogue in a context that by all accounts appears to be experiencing the stifling of debate and the experience of the limitations on freedom of expression.
2. Pursuing restorative justice in this case potentially establishes a national precedence that demonstrates that our community can deal with the aftermath of political violence differently and not through mechanical, bureaucratic exclusion that will only result in creating an environment where people have nothing to lose. It is no surprise that police presence and expulsions have been followed by fire at our institutions.

3. CPUT TRC as an open public process could provide a platform through which South African Youth and broader society can begin to critique and reimagine the advantages and shortcomings of the TRC as a process and provide a much needed reflective point. The Student organizations among many, are largely and openly critical and synical of the TRC process that brough South Africa’s present dispensation into being. This process could open up a space where those very criticisms and limitations can be tested and debated publicly as we continue to push towards a reflexive understanding of how we came to be where we are today.
4. CPUT TRC will provide a space to problematise the ways in which the “victim” and “perpetrator” identities become used to individualise collective or mass action. Such a space could provide the basis for the emergence of a common memory of FeesMustFall and PrincMustFall protests that takes into account a multitude of diverse experiences.

In short, the gambit for the FeesMustFall TRC pushes the Cape Peninsula University of Technology to take a consistent position on what the appropriate means of dealing with political violence are.
It is either that restorative justice is desirable and a FeesMustFall (CPUT) TRC is established or that the Cape Peninsula University of Technology must admit and reject publicly the legitimacy of post¬1994 TRC as a process that, among many things, was tasked with addressing the legacy of political violence (and facilitating constructive reconciliation of communities in conflict). This will be the University direct insult to the legacy of the fallen heroes who made South Africa what it is today and there will be a call for all who participated to the original TRC to come clean as the University which is the academic space, delegitimize the TRC of 1994.
1. Nelson Mandela Foundation
2. Desmond Tutu Foundation
3. Dikgang Moseneke (Former Deputy Chief Justice of RSA)
4. Constitutional Court
5. Political Parties of 1994
6. All Prominent Figures in TRC establishment

All these institutions, Organizations and individuals will have to account to South African population why the Institution of Higher learning ( University) is dismissing the TRC as is speaks directly to an understanding TRC resolves problems of such a magnitude.

Is restorative justice reserved for powerful whites or when they are involved in political violence?
Everyone must sign.