Pretoria - A mass protest is being planned for Monday at Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, student leaders said on Thursday.
“We are talking of a mass protest of 15 000 students,” Central Students Representative Council (SRC) president Mboniseni Dladla announced on Thursday.
“All campuses have agreed to meet on Monday, at the Pretoria West campus, to strike,” he said.
The university suspended classes at the Pretoria campus on Wednesday morning because students were burning tyres outside the institution's gates.
They were protesting against lack of funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
The university remained shut on Thursday, despite announcements by its management that classes would resume.
Dladla told students to brace themselves for Monday.
“We have given them our memorandum, and if we don't get a commitment by Friday, addressing all our issues, then we are going to protest,” he said.
On Thursday, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announced that R1 billion would be added to the NSFAS.
“(My) department has made available an additional amount of R1bn, sourced from the National Skills Fund, to all universities to cover the 2013 and 2014 shortfall,” he told reporters in Pretoria.
He said the NSFAS had a shortfall of R2.6bn in 2013.
Sapa