Johannesburg - Protesting university students believe police are now targeting their leaders in an attempt to cripple their movement, which calls for free education.
Former Wits Student Representative Council president Mcebo Dlamini was arrested during an early morning police swoop on the Wits Junction residence on Sunday.
Other arrested #FeesMustFall leaders are the University of Pretoria’s Amla Monageng and the University of Cape Town’s Masixole Mlandu. Monageng was arrested after a scuffle with police while Mlandu was arrested for violating an interdict and intimidation.
Eleven University of KwaZulu-Natal students, including student leader Chuma Wakeni, have been in prison for about a month for campus-related violence. Some student leaders said they suspect that universities are feeding the police with information on where student leaders live.
The protesters say they will not be deterred in their quest for free education.
After relative calm at Wits University, there was renewed violence in Braamfontein on Friday, with two vehicles torched and some businesses vandalised.
The violent protests have continued despite repeated warnings of dire consequences by university authorities, government officials and some NGOs.
At the weekend, South Africa’s top science advisory body, the Academy of Science of South Africa (Assaf), said the country was facing the prospect of “permanent and irreversible damage” to its fragile higher education system unless the crisis unfolding within the sector was resolved urgently.
It said the National Development Plan could - ultimately - be at risk.
“Our higher education institutions represent decades of cumulative investment and they are looked up to throughout Africa and the rest of the world,” Assaf said in a statement issued at the weekend.
“Like other higher education institutions worldwide, they are very fragile. If they are profoundly destabilised and weakened, the future damage to our socio-political system and economy could lead to the failure of the NDP.”
Also at the weekend, University of Cape Town vice-chancellor Dr Max Price warned that this week would be crucial in ensuring that the 2016 academic year was not lost. He said that although undergraduate face-to-face classes had been suspended, all faculties would ensure students receive all curricula material. Deferred exams would be written in January.
Wits, which has been the epicentre of the protests in Gauteng, has warned that the protests could negatively affect its intake of new students for the 2017 academic year, apart from jeopardising the current academic year and the adverse impact on prospective graduates.
Late last week, Wits imposed stricter access controls for visitors on its campus premises and has put in a place a temporary 10pm curfew at its residences.
The arrests of Dlamini and other student leaders seemed raise tension between universities and the protesters.
Dlamini, 32, was arrested at a Wits residence around 1am on Sunday “as part of ongoing investigations into violence, criminality and intimidation”, said police spokesperson Brigadier Sally de Beer.
He was being detained at Cleveland police station and was due to appear in court on Monday.
University of Pretoria SRC president Thabo Shingange said they were worried that the police were specifically targeting leaders during the protests.
“The worrying thing is that they are using apartheid tactics. It is unsettling to walk by and the cops say to you Thabo, we are coming for you'.”
Shingange lamented the fact that instead of being detained in the holding cells, Monageng was detained at the Kgosi Mampuru II correctional facility and Mlandu at Pollsmoor prison.
Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel said rumours that there was a curfew on campus were untrue.
“Students can move freely throughout the campuses until 10pm. Library opening and closing times have not changed. The only difference is that students have to study in their own residences after 10pm instead of in learning areas. They can walk freely in their respective residences,” she said.
Patel also disputed students' claims that police entered residences and knocked door-to-door. “There were skirmishes on Friday night but no injuries were reported to Campus Control. Classes will resume on Monday.”