Five student councils join Israel boycott

Student representative councils from five top local universities last week announced the adoption of a resolution to join the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, writes Kennedy Mudzuli for the Pretoria News.

They are from the University of South Africa or UNISA, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology and the University of the Western Cape. The student leaders from these universities announced the decision at a media briefing at UNISA. In so doing, they joined the students of the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Cape Town that became part of the academic boycott of Israel in 2012 and 2014. The University of Johannesburg terminated its relations with Israel’s Ben-Gurion University in 2011.

Maduduzi Mabuza, student leader at UNISA, said the resolution followed a 2011 mandate by the South Africa Union of Students, a body of student representative councils in the country. Mabuza said the decision was in support of Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, denied a visa to Palestine because of his public utterances against the illegal occupation of Palestine by Israel.
Full report on the IOL site