Sakhile Ndlazi
Pretoria - Classes at the University of Pretoria will remain suspended until further notice after violent clashes erupted on the campus on Monday.
Tension flared on the campus on Monday over the use of Afrikaans and the situation deteriorated into a clash between black students and their Afrikaner counterparts.
University spokeswoman Anna-Retha Bouwer said management was planning on resolving the issue with the parties concerned so that academic activities at the university could continue.
“For the safety of the students we have decided to suspend classes as there has been immense violence on campus since last Friday,” she said.
Security around the campus was beefed up in addition to a heavy police presence keeping a close watch.
Even though classes have been suspended, students for and against the #AfrikaansSalBly movement gathered near the main campus on Tuesday.
A group of pro-Afrikaans students came to defend the language and culture outside the campus’s main gate in Hatfield.
They staged a protest under the theme “AfrikaansSalBly” (AfrikaansWill Stay).
The protesters gathered at Loftus Versfeld stadium in the morning before making their way to the campus where they demanded to speak with vice-chancellor Cheryl de la Rey.
The group is demanding that Afrikaans be retained as a language of instruction at the university following calls that the language be scrapped.
Factions were also visible among the #AfrikaansSalBly movement.
The group of protesters who initially came under a united frontwere soon divided after disagreeing on the manner in which the march should be conducted.
The right-wing political party Front Nasionaal broke away from the other liberal groups of students that made up the #AfrikaansSalBly movement.
Jaco Snyman, co-founder of #AfrikaansSalBly, said the aim of the march was not to score political points but to retain their language and culture.
“We as a people feel our culture is being diminished and we can’t sit back and watch our rich heritage being diluted,” said Snyman.
The groups ended up conducting their own separate protests.
On the other end of the street, representatives from the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC) demanded transformation at the institution. Amla Monageng, of the EFFSC, said they didn’t wish to cause violence but warned police to handle the situation fairly.
A third group of students gathered near the two other factions and conducted a prayer service. Members were mostly from the Christian Revival Church.
They called on God to provide a fair solution to the stand-off.
Since the violent clashes on Monday, social media has been abuzz and different organisations have been sharing their opinions. The University of Pretoria Academics for Change urged all students to remain calm, desist from violent confrontation and engage in dialogue in order to enable a speedy resumption of teaching and learning.
In a letter to the UP management, trade union Solidarity and the University of Pretoria Workers’ Organisation said their members would only report for duty if the university was able to guarantee their continued safety. The unions requested the university management to make an alternative venue available where their members could perform their duties.
Solidarity said they had told their 1 000 or so members not to report for duty until the institution could guarantee their safety. The union’s deputy secretary-general of the professional industry, Johan Botha, said: “Despite the fact that the university assured us on Friday that our members were safe, people were bombarded with stones, and fists and bullets flew. (Their) place of work was almost turned into a war zone.”
Pretoria News