A small group of College of Cape Town students at the City Campus are protesting over an alleged shortage of lecturers at the institution.
The protest was sparked largely due to the loss of a particular lecturer, whom many said stepped up to fill the gaps as a result of a lack of lecturers, with the protesters calling for the return of the lecturer.
On 9 February, the Student Representative Council wrote to the college management, stating that the absence of lecturers has resulted in the cancellation of classes without notice; there was a lack of communication around the departure of lecturers; and uncertainty and confusion among students around their coursework, assignments and assessments.
Protest organiser Somikazi Joni said there was a shortage of lecturers in Business Management, and Transport and Logistics. There was also no Mathematics Literature lecturer.
Second-year Transport and Logistics student Nyakallo Mbali says: “I’m protesting about the management of this college. The majority of us are NSFAS-funded, but you will find we don’t have textbooks... We don’t have lecturers. I spent almost six months last year without a Computer Literacy lecturer.”
However, acting campus manager, Marsha Solomon, refuted the claims and said that the college secured its full staffing complement for 2024.
Solomon says: “The students are protesting because they do not want the staff we have provided.
“We have incurred staff cuts, this is due to a reduction of student intake/numbers.”