On Suicide at #WitsUniversity: These Are Not Just #Suicides They Are Murder BY VERNAC NEWS ON MAY 14, 2018 • ( LEAVE A COMMENT ) #MceboDlamini It was in 2015 during the Fees Must Fall protests when I was greeted by graffiti slashed across the walls of one of the entrances at Wits University. The graffiti written in red spraypaint by a group called BlackThought read ‘we can no longer breathe in this university’. It became clear to me that the protests were about much more than just a struggle for free education, students were protesting for something much deeper. Black students were lamenting that they feel excluded and alienated in a place that is supposed to give them an education. They were lamenting that in Wits University they are always reminded of their blackness and by implication their un-wantedness. This is why the call quickly shifted from just free education to a decolonized education. Decolonization entails a complete obliteration of everything that seeks to make black people aliens in their country of birth. When students made a call to decolonize the university they were calling for a complete change in the ways in which teaching and learning is understood and conducted at Wits. They were calling for a reorganization of the entire structure and functioning of the university in such a way that it accommodates black people. When the students said that they can no longer breathe in the university it wasn’t just a metaphorical statement, they meant it quite literally. In the first semester of 2018 there have allegedly been three cases of students who have committed suicide at Wits University. These cases are not novel, Wits has the highest rates of suicide among the universities in South Africa. In 2017 two suicides were reported in two months. In October a 19 year old Kago Moeng jumped of a building and in November a decomposing body of a student was found in one of the storerooms of the university. In 2012 two students and a lecture committed suicide. From 2000 to 2018 there have been approximately 20 cases of su (at Centurion, Gauteng)
