An independent fact-checking website said reports that 77% of University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) students voted for campus to reopen are incorrect. Wits students embarked on violent Fees Must Fall protests following an announcement by Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande that university education fees for 2017 will rise at a rate determined by individual varsities.Lectures were suspended at the university‚ prompting management to conduct a poll of students last Thursday to determine whether the institution should open.Africa Check said the results were incorrectly reported on news platforms in that they had not reflected the vote as a percentage of the students who voted‚ against the student body as a whole.“An SMS sent to the university’s 37,000 students asked: ‘Should Wits open on Mon 3 Oct subject to appropriate security protocols being in place?’“The interim results showed that of the 21 730 students who responded to the poll‚ 16 739 students (77%) voted 'Yes' and 4 991 students (23%) voted 'No'‚" Africa Check stated.The poll was audited by auditing firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo.“Reports that ‘77% of Wits students’ want to return to class today‚ as stated in headlines by eNCA‚ ANN7‚ The New Age‚ The Mail and Guardian and the SABC‚ are therefore incorrect.“The headlines should have stated that 77% of students who responded to the poll voted for the university to reopen. When calculated as a percentage of the student body as a whole‚ 45% of students voted for the university to reopen‚” Africa Check reported.The Wits student representative council (SRC) said on Monday that it rejected the varsity’s announcement‚ as it was just “an opinion poll” and did not deal with the issue at hand.“The question doesn’t deal with why the academic programme was closed in the first place‚ ie‚ the fight for free and quality education‚” SRC secretary-general Fasiha Hassan told Radio 702 on Monday morning. “It doesn’t substantively deal with the issue.”She said it was “only an opinion poll”‚ not a “referendum” and thus was in no way “legally binding”.Hassan was speaking ahead of a gathering on the campus on Monday morning.– TMG Digital..