Higher Education ‘concerned’ at violent nature of student protests

Students at two institutions in Gauteng, Wits University and the Tshwane University of Technology, have embarked on protests over the past week.

Students took to the streets on Wednesday last week and Tuesday respectively to voice anger at those with historical debt not being able to register.

“We are concerned about the violent nature of some of these protests, such as the protest at Wits which in part manifested isolated acts of intimidation of staff, students, members of the public and destruction of property,” Manamela told Parliament’s higher education committee on Wednesday.

“There have been incidences at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and at the Tshwane University of Technology, and we are in touch with the leaders in those institutions to try and get a deeper understanding of what the nature of the problem is and to try and assist in ensuring that we resolve those issues in instances where alternative platforms do not exist in order for us to deal with those protests.”

Manamela appealed to the management of universities to continue engaging with student leaders.

“As a department we will commit to engage the student leadership as they have indicated that we have had continuous meetings with them (management). I think the challenge is to ensure that the kind of the sectoral stakeholder engagements that we have with all the stakeholders at the national level are there to translate into practical solutions at localised level.

“We will continue to engage with the student leadership, our institution management and also organised labour to ensure that in all instances we restore calm,” said Manamela.

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