South African police fired stun grenades and arrested 31 students in clashes at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) on Tuesday, as countrywide protests demanding free tertiary education entered a third week.
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“The students threw stones at the police and the police fired stun grenades”, spokesman Lungelo Dlamini said, adding that one police officer was hurt in the neck by a stone.
Several students were injured in the latest unrest, South African media reported.
Students and campus security battled outside the Great Hall auditorium at Wits University in Johannesburg, the most prestigious university in the country, leaving numerous building’s windows broken and the ground littered with rocks before police moved in to break up the fighting.
The University of Cape Town suspended classes, lectures and tutorials on Tuesday and Wednesday, while the University of the Free State closed its campuses until Friday.
At the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which recently resumed classes after a two-week shutdown linked to protests, students from the Pietermaritzburg campus marched peacefully to the provincial legislature to hand over a memorandum.
Through the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) public-funded student loan system, students from poor backgrounds could attain education and plough back into the system to help others, he said.
“The dialogue with students must continue; however damage to property and violence can never be tolerated”, minister Nzimande said.
In a Facebook post, a group calling itself the NMMU Fees Must Fall Movement explained why it was taking the protest beyond university grounds.
“We do not believe that resuming university operations for the next two days will be a viable option”, she said.
Student leaders are claiming to stage peaceful protests, like library sit-ins, but what is actually taking place is disruptive and violent protests.
Government provided R1,9 billion of the R2,3 billion shortfall in university funding resulting from 0% fee increase for 2016.
They mobilised everyone to join the demonstration, which they say will not stop until government accedes to their demand for free education.
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“In the present constrained fiscal environment this is an extremely challenging situation”, Treasury continued, supporting Nzimande’s decision to cover fee increases for the poor and “missing middle” while letting wealthier students pay the fee hikes. He left it to individual universities to decide what their increases would be.
