DUT Students rise to fight for their Educational rights

The students at the Durban university of Technology have stood up to fight against the fraud which has been happening at the financial services offices whereby many of the students that have applied for funding had their offers rejected as NSFAS claimed that it had unsufficient funds to support the poor students . On  Thursday, 29 January thousands of students marched to the Steve Biko Campus with the leadership of SASCO and to help fight against the NSFAS ( National Student Financial Aid Scheme ) which has denied to sponsor the poor students in the Durban University of Technology.



The news are spreading about how the University Financial Aid Scheme and NSFAS have ill treated the young students after they have received a message which claimed that all most all the students at  the university of kwazulu-natal and at Mungosuthu University of Technology have received funding and at DUT only about a quarter leaving the other students with outstanding funds which they owe the university. Last night I have been able to Speak to a second year electrical engineering student who to told me that he was not able to register because he owed more than R 25 000 ( $2400 )  and many owed more than that such that the University have restricted them from registering or getting their results.


The DUT  SRC have released a message which is as follows:


Mqondisi Duma wrote:
SRC STATEMENT
27 JANUARY 2015


The Student Representative Council of Durban University of Technology welcomes all students who have returned safely from home. We also extend our greetings to those who are coming to DUT for the first time this year.

As much as we acknowledge and note the parasitic nature of a festive season, where our parents must spend the little that they have during this period, and when time comes that we must come back to school,  they can’t financially contribute to challenges we face at the beginning of the year. No different from previous years, we come back to a university that epitomizes a society where a student with financial muscles is worshiped by the university than a student whose life is a humiliated one, undignified, unimportant, on the basis that he struggles with the means of subsistence.

Students must be rest assured that until we take a battle to those who are waging war against us as black students in particular, no one will fight back and be in their defense but only themselves. You go to a meeting with the management you find people who would sweat just trying to give reasons
why students can’t be assisted and you realize that these are the same people who were in a forefront during the apartheid regime, whom you would think they understand where you are coming from as Africans in particular and blacks in general, and there and then u realize that indeed ‘’black child
you are on your own’’. Exactly, who is supposed to fight for you when  everyone is turning against you? We continue to experience frustrations of the online system even this year.

Amongst many challenges that are paused by this system, things that we are not going to except as the SRC is for students to spend much time not being in class while classes are on progress, because they are nursing these challenges not of their creation but of this so-called NEW SYSTEM. Our major concern is that when NSFAS scrutinize students who are successful or unsuccessful, they disregard the fact that some students would have failed because they spent most of their time out in SRC offices, financial aid trying to address these matters, and at the end of the day NSFAS does not want to be held accountable.

We also want NSFAS to keep the spirit and principle of academic progress and student’s background, not only when it suits them. They must sustain that even with students who are left with two modules or less to complete their qualifications and programs. We want to commend the University for opening an investigation of financial aid department and we wish them a fruitful investigation. All looters, fraudsters, solicitors of moneys of poor students must be investigated and if found guilty, they must be jailed, they must be fired, they must pay back the money, and be expelled from the
university.

The SRC is flabbergasted and disappointed to all those hooligans claiming to be SRC, SASCO, ANCYL and YCLSA who are working with staff from some department to loot student money, we also demand an investigation even if those students are our own comrades. We are off the belief that all departments that are alleged to have corrupt tendencies must be investigated. It misguided information that in DUT only financial aid that has problems of misusing student’s resources and resources at their disposal.

The STUDENTS REPRESENTATIVE COUNCIL (SRC) is encouraging all students of DUT-DBN to go and meet at M.L SULTAN (CANE GROWERS HALL)

DATE : 02 FEBRUARY 2015
TIME : 08:00

The SRC welcomes all students and wishing that this will be a progressive year in the interest of students. All for the revolution and nothing against it……….AMANDLAAAAAAAAAAA

ISSUED BY THE SRC

AYANDA NGIDI MQONDISI DUMA
PRESIDENT D.SECRETARY GENERAL
074 444 1084 079 228 2108


In this meeting scheduled by the DUT SRC it is planned to happen this Monday and a very strong force of the law enforcement is expected to be present to prevent any violent acts that may result in the progress of the meeting. the issues which are to be discussed are based on financial aid and also on the messages that were received by the students calling them to proceed with their registration, as their funding has received approval, this messages were mostly considered as a spam because they had no reference number accompanying them .

Teaching and learning proceeded successfully on the next day but most of the students are not met by the Financial Aid Scheme which might be forced to go back to their respective homes.

Political Positioning

Last night, President Obama delivered one of his last State of the Unions. The President on Tuesday pitched a package of controversial policy proposals aimed at benefiting the middle-class. And while many think these ideas are good, there are many others who think his policies are out-of-touch with the needs of the country. Over the last week, the White House announced a package of policy proposals that are aimed at helping working Americans. Obama is pushing for the tripling of the child tax credit, increasing the capital gains taxes, and most notably make community college tuition free. These new policies have little chance of actually passing now that Republicans control both the Senate and Congress. But, Obama needs to position himself for the building fight taking place in less than a month: the passing of our country's budget.



Since The President's reelection in 2012, Obama's approval ratings have dropped leaving him with little political capital…. until recently. With a rebounding economy, President Obama is playing offense instead of defense. The President's aim in recent weeks is to paint the Democratic party as the one representing the middle-class. He even is planning to barnstorm the country in the next week to promote those policies, and the Democratic Party as a whole. The reality is that the President wants to increase his political capital for next month's budget fight.

President Obama wants the GOP to be the party that doesn't seem to care about 47% of Americans so he can have the upper hand in budget negotiations. Its no surprise his message Tuesday night took a every person, populist tone: Let's make our country fair once again and help the middle-class work their way up to the top.


Recognizing the threat, Republicans are also staking out a more populist tone to combat the caricature the President is trying to draw. Joni Ernst, one of the GOP's rising stars and former lieutenant, took the Republican Response to a similar place: "We see our neighbors agonize over stagnant wages and lost jobs. We see the hurt caused by canceled healthcare plans and higher monthly insurance bills…America has been hurting." Senator Ernst offers a new face, and a more down-to-Earth tone that could help
Republicans seem more concerned with the working-class.
Regardless of who is right, the budget fights this year will be intense. President Obama has already threatened to veto five different bills and Republicans are reeling over his use of executive action. While its unknown what this budget might actually contain, both Republicans and Democrats will try to out-position the other as the party caring more about struggling Americans. So I ask you, who will you believe?
Author Bio: Austin Kruger is a Junior at Boston University and Consulting Legal Analytics Associate at Argopoint .

Raif Badawi second round of flogging postponed

 

 

After the punishment of a Blogger Raif Badawi, The Saudi Arabia's use of flogging as a punishment has been greatly condemned by the United  Nations as cruel and inhuman way to conduct a punishment.

Raif Badawi a common known blogger, who set up a liberal website to discuss Saudi Politics in which he had used to criticize the country's hardline hard line religious establishment.  Was sentenced to have 1000 lashes in May 2014.
The first bout of 50 lashes were administered last Friday which triggered a world outcry as many people around the world have been protesting against the inhuman acts done by the government of Saudi Arabia.
The flogging which was due to happen on Friday has been postponed the wounds from the last Friday had not healed. The flogging and sentencing of Raif Badawi has been judged as a inhumane as the biggest human rights organizations such as Anaesty International which had been having campaigns for the release of Badawi.

Raif Badawi had received his first fifty lash flogging outside the mosque in the red sea city of Jeddah last Friday and he is expected to complete his 21 sessions of flogging to finish up his punishment.

Experienced Doctors who deal with patients that have gone through these flogging process have explained that flogging is very painful in such that some of the victims find it hard to cope after they have undergone this punished in that it results to depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and even suicide.

Dr. John Hayward who usually access the victims of flogging in his interview with the Telegraph had confirmed that the injuries will mostly depend on the type of equipment that had been used and also how hard the victim was lashed. Mostly the victims that have undergone this punishment had internal pains due to the tearing of the skin and it had been confirmed that Raif Badawi had his shirt on during the punishment.

 

Human abuse is greatly practiced in the Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan and Gaza as many of these governments have allowed these evil acts in the name of religion. Bloggers let us stand against the act of flogging which is practiced and let us stand out to report such issues.