Protesting students had made a decision to march in the streets of Braamfontein when they were stopped by police who ordered that they return to campus.
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The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) announced closure of the institution on Wednesday and Thursday after attempts to negotiate with students failed.
According to police, dozens of people suspected of involvement in acts of violence have been arrested, Xinhua news agency reported. The 31 are still detained at Johannesburg’s Hillbrow Police Station.
A student at the scene who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety said many students had been injured Wednesday when police fired at them, but were rushed inside campus for treatment.
The demonstrators have been reacting to a government announcement that universities can increase fees by up to 8 percent next year.
The Freedom Charter stipulates that “higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit”.
Those with the means to do so should contribute to increasing university costs by paying fees, said the minister.
The minister also announced that the government is committed to finding the resources to subsidise children of poor, working and middle class families – those with a household income of no more than 600,000 rand (about 42,000 U.S. dollars) per annum – to protect them from the tuition rise.
“We have now learnt that the momentum is escalating among students”.
Such protests “are wholly unacceptable and provide no solution to student concerns”, Nzimande said in a statement.
Students started gathering on campus this morning.
It appears the woman suffered burn marks as police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of students who were marching in Jorissen Street who was carried to a nearby ambulance.
At least three universities suspended classes because of the protests, including Wits, the University of Pretoria’s main campus and the University of Cape Town. “Our dean of students is also with them. we understand a few have been taken to hospital as well”.
Meanwhile, staff at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT) were asked to leave the main campus premises just before lunch yesterday. Gauteng Provincial Deputy Commissioner Eric Nkuna said the police are constantly disrupted from their core business of fighting crime by the “Fees Must Fall” protests.
Weeks of violent demonstrations last year forced President Jacob Zuma to rule out fee raises for 2016, but university authorities have warned that another freeze for the coming year could damage their academic programmes.
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Lectures were suspended at several universities across the country, while university properties worth millions of rands (dollars) were vandalized.
