Students take to streets

22 September 2016 - 08:38 By JAN BORNMAN, ARON HYMAN, SIPHO MABENA and DENEESHA PILLAY

Pitched battles erupted at Wits University for a second day yesterday after students protesting against fee increases ignored police instructions to end the "occupation" of a Braamfontein, Johannesburg, street. A Progressive Youth Alliance member told The Times: "This isn't a university issue. This is a societal issue. That's why we insist on taking it to the streets."Student leaders pleaded to be allowed to get the protesters inside campus but police opened fire with stun grenades and rubber bullets.Students responded with a hail of rocks.Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini said 31 students arrested early on Tuesday had been "released unconditionally because the prosecutor declined to prosecute". He said two students arrested yesterday would most likely appear in court today on charges of public violence.Meanwhile, a backlash against the protests began yesterday, with students across the country complaining their studies and exams were being disrupted by thugs.Tshwane University of Technology student leaders blamed chaos at the Arcadia and Pretoria West campus on "outside hooligans".TUT student representative council president Banele Malefo said: "We are probing whether these are students. It is more of a political agenda than student grievances." The University of Pretoria suspended classes until Monday and suspended several students.Spokesman Anna-Retha Bouwer said the university was aware of a voicemail sent to non-protesting students, intimidating them into joining the protest. "We condemn in strongest possible terms any form of intimidation," Bouwer said.A third-year University of Cape Town medical student said she was afraid of a repeat of last year, when exams were delayed until January."The classes we've missed are piling up and the work has to be caught up somehow. If it goes on like this then exams are going to be postponed," she said. Ten students and a staff member were suspended from Stellenbosch University yesterday for allegedly assaulting students on Tuesday.University spokesman Martin Viljoen said the 11 had been suspended for "serious misconduct".Police confirmed that a university employee in her 60s had opened a case of assault against students who allegedly attacked her. Reports of other assaults would also be investigated, Viljoen said.Students at Rhodes University vowed to shut down the Grahamstown campus until the university announced the way forward."We are not bothered that exams won't be written. What's the point of progressing to the next year if you are not going to be able to afford it," said second-year BA student Sharissa Cassles. - Additional reporting Shenaaz Jamal and Poppy Louw..

There’s never been a more important time to support independent media.

From World War 1 to present-day cosmopolitan South Africa and beyond, the Sunday Times has been a pillar in covering the stories that matter to you.

For just R80 you can become a premium member (digital access) and support a publication that has played an important political and social role in South Africa for over a century of Sundays. You can cancel anytime.

Already subscribed? Sign in below.



Questions or problems? Email helpdesk@timeslive.co.za or call 0860 52 52 00.