Johannesburg - Protest action over historical debt and lack of accommodation continued for the fourth day at Wits University on Thursday.
Protesting students started the morning by blocking the north and south Yale Road entrances of the campus as part of their shutdown. Private security and the SAPS are all over the campus to monitor the situation.
At around 11am, the protesting students gathered outside the FNB building on the Wits West Campus where they were met by private security blocking the entrances. Violence erupted between the students and private security and stones were thrown.
Wits South African Students Congress (Sasco) chairperson Mpendulo Mfeka told The Star that a student was allegedly tased by private security during the scuffle.
The protesting students are demanding that students who owed R100 000 or less be allowed to register and brought back into the system. They are also demanding that the lack of accommodation in the university be resolved.
“We are saying as the Wits (Progressives Youth Alliance) PYA led SRC this year that there is no student who is going to under a table or a desk,” said Mfeka. “If there is a student tonight who sleeps under a table, we will make sure that Habib doesn’t sleep peacefully.”
The students then occupied the piazza outside of the Great Hall where Wits SRC Chairperson Sisanda Aluta Mbolekwa said they will not leave until university management concedes to their demands.
“Should they concede, comrades, we’re going back to class. Should they not, we are going forward with the fight for registration and accommodation,” she said.