| The University still wasn't ceding to any of the students' demands. So, instead of class getting under way full swing, toyi-toying got into full swing. The Student Representative Council was holding mass meetings for the students in the University Hall, in the morning and sometimes in early evening. The University and the SRC was in a debate over a financial policy that the University had implemented at the end of the previous school year. |  |
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The University was deeply in debt, and many students
owed the school quite a bit of money. In South Afrika, there were not
as many options to finance an education as some students in other countries
have. In the states, students can get loans to cover the costs of their
education, which they and pay back later. Many of the students at Fort
Hare had to rely on Bursaries, or grants, to be able to pay for school
if their family couldn't afford it.
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What students had the tendency to do is go to school,
accrue debts to the school and then attempt to pay them once they were
finished and could gain a salary outside of school. Apparently students
owed several million Rands to the University, so the University instigated
a policy that every student had to settle all of their debts with Fort
Hare and pay fifty percent of the fees for the current semester before
they could enroll in any further classes.
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| For many of the students who had to go in debt to the University, there was no other way to be able to go to school. A University degree was a means to enter into enfranchisement for this generation of students who saw the changes in the oppression of apartheid that restricted their parents. The University's new policy meant that those students that couldn't afford to pay all the money that they owed were to be restricted from enrolling in classes and continuing their education. | |
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The enrollment of University of Fort Hare had apparently
been about 6,000 during 1997. Only about 2,500 to 3,000 students returned
for 1998, and only 1,200 had registered in the first week or two. The
SRC was encouraging students not to register as a protest and show of
support for those who could not afford to pay. Toyi-toying was a form
of demonstration, based on the student demonstrations against apartheid.
The songs and marches came from the toyi-toying that took place to protest
apartheid. The SRC would hold mass meetings and report back to the students
on the progress or stalemates from the discussions with management,
then decide whether to continue.
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