UCT chief expects more campus protest and calls for peaceful negotiation
University of Cape Town (UCT) head Max Price expects more campus protests in 2017‚ warning that it is impossible to negotiate with fees campaigners determined to close several big universities indefinitely. "I am certain there will be protests‚" Price tells Cape Town advocate Andrew Brown in a Daily Maverick interview on Tuesday. "And if students choose to use unlawful means to force their demands on the university and are not willing to negotiate peacefully‚ then we will need to bring in private security and police. I would like it to be otherwise, but that is in the hands of the protest leaders." But Price says he is optimistic that a settlement negotiated with student groups on the eve of exams — which passed off peacefully — would lead to constructive discussion on points of conflict rather than disruptive protests.
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