Johannesburg - Police managed to calm angry students who clashed with security guards and stoned the Great Hall at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) on Tuesday, in an attempt to force their way into the hall and meet with university management.
The police allowed the students to the enter hall where they were again addressed by the Student Representative Council (SRC). The students were hostile to the media and they refused that they come in the meeting or take videos.
“Stop taking videos and writing lies about us, you misrepresent us,” shouted one of the students.
However, incoming SRC Lindokuhle Ntumbo was willing to talk to journalists and said their anger is not aimed at the university but at the government.
“We didn’t intend to stone the hall but because the security guards didn’t want us to enter, this made the students angry. The police didn’t bother us when we were marching, the guards should have done the same,” he said.
Ntumbo said the students feel undermined by the government because they make decisions without thinking about the students.
“All we want is to be educated but what the government is doing is depriving us that chance.”
The students have been hostile since Monday after Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s announced that universities can increase fees for 2017, provided it does not exceed eight percent.
African News Agency