Scuffle as EFF students disrupt Sasco briefing, assault media at DUT

A media briefing by the ANC-aligned SA Students Congress (Sasco) to address the volatile situation at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) was disrupted a few minutes after it had started.

A few members of the EFF Student Command (EFFSC) left the rest of their group, who were singing and toyi-toying on the road near the DUT's Steve Biko campus, a few metres from where Sasco was having its media briefing.

One of them ripped apart a speech Sasco provincial chair, Sduduzo Malinga, was reading. They asked Sasco members what they were doing there and if they knew  Mlungisi Madonsela - the student who died after being shot on campus.

The unruly members then pushed TV cameras away and hurled insults at journalists. One of them, who appeared drunk and with a glass in hand, tried to assault a photographer who was busy taking pictures and then smashed the phone of another photographer.

It was only through the intervention of the police that the situation was brought under control.

Malinga told TimesLIVE after the skirmish that Sasco condemned the action by some EFFSC members.

"We condemn what the EFF Student Command is doing. It's wrong to disrupt other organisations because we called the shutdown. Now they are being opportunistic. After we called the shutdown they mobilised different campuses, including some community members who are not students," he said.

"As Sasco we will continue with our shutdown because we are saying our students must get accommodation and allowances and those students who have late payments because of NSFAS must be unblocked so that they continue with their registration and academic processes."