ANC condemns violence, destruction at UKZN
The ANC has condemned the violence and destruction of university property during protests at the University of KwaZulu Natal.
40 students have now been arrested during the fee-related protests.
The university has also moved up its September recess - to close its campuses.
The ANC has called on students and staff at all universities across the country to condemn any unlawful conduct.
"Attacking university property and harassing university leaders is illegal and a crime. Unlawful conduct cannot be justified by the mistaken belief that burning books is an attack on white monopoly capital. Our country must expose this vandalism, that seeks to hold universities to ransom in the name of decolonisation. The ANC calls on students and staff at all universities to reject violence and to ensure the Fee Commission completes its work timeously," the ANC said.
The party says the burning of books is a symbolic act of anti-intellectualism.
"The burning of books and University Infrastructure is reprehensible and has no connection to the calls for free education for the poor. The burning of books is a symbolic act of anti-intellectualism. In the 1930s the German Student Union, a Nazi structure, ran a book-burning campaign, targeting books written by Jews, liberals and communists. It was a prelude to Fascism and the Holocaust," it said.