Wits calm ahead of marches by opposing student groups

05 October 2016 - 12:30 By Kingdom Mabuza

The University of the Witwatersrand was empty and calm on Wednesday morning. Apart from a contingent of journalists and campus security‚ there was very little activity after it was announced on Tuesday that academic activities would be suspended until on Monday.The police‚ who engaged in running battles with students on Tuesday‚ have been ordered to withdraw to the perimeter of the university’s campuses. But the situation could change in the next couple of hours as two groups of students plan to hold marches.The Take Back Wits group will march to demand that academic activities should resume without the disturbances witnessed on Tuesday‚ while the Fees Must Fall movement is adamant that there should be no classes until higher education is free for all.Clashes are seen as likely given the level of intolerance displayed to those who continued to attend classes. Wits said it suspended its “academic programme with a common objective to resume it in full on Monday”.It said it had made “this concession because we do not want the scenes that played out on our University campuses” on Tuesday‚ when students and police clashed‚ “to be repeated”. – TMG Digital..

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