It has been rumoured the President of South Africa, Jacob Gezay’hlekisa Zuma and the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, will be meeting with SAUS as well as representatives from DASO, and SASCO. We the #NationalShutDown collective, would like to reject this notion. The demands set out in the Memorandum sent out by the national Shut Down Collective on Wednesday 21st of October 2015, is not to be negotiated. It is a list of demands and not requests. Our aim is to bring about social justice in our country.
Both Dr Blade Nzimande and President Zuma ignored our members when they were outside parliament yesterday. Furthermore, they fled away from the very students that they claim to serve. It seems that the government of the ANC has forgotten whom they serve. The #NationShutDown Collective is a non-partisan group made up of students, staff and workers from across the country who reject the exclusionary and exorbitant fees of higher education and learning. We, the students, have suspended our differences for the national goal of #FeesMustFall #FreeEducation. Furthermore, we are grossly disgusted by the actions of the 21st of October 2015 regarding police brutality at various institutions in the country.
Thus, the #NationalShutDown collective rejects the meeting due to take place on the 23rd of October for a select few, as it is divisive in its nature. Rather, we have set for Blade Nzimande to respond to our demands by the 23rd of October 2015, by 12:00 midday. We want to emphasise the fact that he publicly responds to the student body of South Africa
