There is enormous anger at both Wits and UJ at the growing injustice and suffering faced by poor people in a city that is home to both universities, their staff and students, says a UJ professor, Kate Alexander. This was reflected in the way support for a co-signed letter of demand had 'snowballed'.

A total of 117 academics from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Johannesburg (UJ) have joined together to sign a letter to "demand that the City of Johannesburg justly compensates families of those who perished and other residents who lived at 80 Albert Street".

The letter calls "on all residents of our city to hold our many mayors and mayoral committee members, former and current, responsible for the decay of scores of inner-city buildings".

The full text of the letter is published below.

According to Kate Alexander, Professor of Sociology at UJ's Centre for Social Change, there is enormous anger at both universities at the growing injustice and suffering faced by poor people in the city that is home to both universities, their staff and students. This was reflected in the way support for the letter had "snowballed".

As a result, Alexander says, the letter is "fairly representative of the majority of academics in Jo'burg... It covers a broad spectrum of disciplines and seniority. Because of time constraints and the mid-semester break, many colleagues did not have an opportunity to sign, but they would have done so."

Alexander adds: "We can take it for granted that...