Memorial for shot TUT student to take place on Thursday

The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) will hold a memorial service on Thursday for a student who was shot dead last week.

Third-year law student Andries Monareng's memorial service will be held on Thursday in Gencor Hall on the Soshanguve South Campus at 11am.

TUT is also helping Monareng's family with arrangements for his funeral this Saturday in Bushbuckridge‚ Mpumalanga. The university is providing transport for students who want to attend.

On Monday‚ TUT suspended academic activities for the rest of the week in the wake of the death.

Monareng was hit by a bullet during a protest outside the university’s Soshanguve North campus after annual Student Representative Council (SRC) elections. The protest was over alleged vote rigging and election fraud.

A TUT student who spoke to TimesLIVE last week on condition of anonymity claimed that police had used live ammunition.

He claimed students were demanding answers after an independent presiding officer was found with a box full of used ballot papers. Security services intervened after students confronted the presiding officer.

“The person was caught and the students confronted him‚ wanting to know who had sent him. They wanted to assault him but the security guards intervened and took him to the control room. The next thing‚ there were police [officers present]‚” the student charged.

“They just released shots and we even found empty cartridges‚ to prove that they were not using rubber bullets.”

Asked about Monareng’s shooting‚ the student said: “It seemed like [he] had been shot on the head‚ above the ear.”

The student said Monareng had died on his way to the hospital.

The police and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) are investigating Monareng’s death. TUT announced on Friday it would conduct a forensic investigation into allegations of possible vote rigging and election fraud.