Chaos broke out again at the University of Witswaterstrand (Wits) as protesting students and leaders of #FeesMustFall campaign clashed with police and private security guards at the university’s main campus in Braamfontein on Monday.
Police fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and teargas after hundreds of students pelted them with rocks. Students were demonstrating outside the Great Hall.
At least two students were seen being arrested prior to the clashes as protesters disrupted classes which had resumed in the morning after being suspended for a week.
This comes two weeks after similar scenarios played out at Wits, with numerous students arrested and others injured after protests began.
The protests followed Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande’s announcement that universities could make individual decisions whether to increase tuition fees for 2017, but should not exceed eight percent.
The university had resolved to open on Monday after classes were suspend for about two weeks as the academic programme was disrupted.
Vuyani Pambo, a member of the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC), addressed the students, saying that they were waiting the Dean of Students to let them into the Great Hall.
Pambo said they had sent a message to the Dean to remove private security guards so that students could make their way to Solomon Mahlangu House.
“The security guards must not test us. They should let us in as they’ve been peaceful, with or without the police in campus,†Pambo said.
He also said that Wits was not a place to engage physically, but psychologically.
Pambo had tweeted in the morning, saying that they would not meet government officials were trying to set up meetings with protesting students if their demands for free education were not met.
“The state is following us and wants to coerce us to meeting with them. To meet them privately is to sell out. No private meetings. It’s 4am in the morning, the state through its spy has found us,†Pambo tweeted.
“We refuse to meet [President Jacob] Zuma or [Minister of Intelligence] [David} Mahlobo in private. Mass meeting resolved.â€
– African News Agency (ANA)
