Security personnel in DUT shooting ‘not meant to deal with student’
Durban University of Technology (DUT) vice chancellor Thandwa Mthembu says security personnel involved in Tuesday's shooting incident which left a student dead were acting without authorisation.
The university briefed the media on the violent protests at its campus.
"As I explained earlier the people who got involved in this incident were never meant to be dealing with students but more with crime around our campus," says Mthembu.
Violent protests rocked DUT on Tuesday, where final year student Mlungisi Madonsela was gunned down by security personnel.
Students were demanding the unblocking of student registrations, a resolution on the accommodation crises and the insourcing of security guards and cleaners.
According to Mthembu out of the 250 security personnel hired, only six are authorised to use firearms.
He further adds that due to the nature of Tuesday's protest, all security personnel were roped in to come and assist.
"But because of lack of enough people who could handle the situation these two officers found themselves in this situation, it is regrettable that they used live ammunition to deal with the situation.
"It so happened of course yesterday, that not having enough people who are well trained, for example members of the public order police, we had not expected that the security officers responsible for perimeter guarding would also find themselves involved.”
The university also condemned the use of live ammunition against protesting students.
"So we say we condemn the use of live ammunition on students because we could not have envisaged that this could happen.”
The two security officers responsible for the death of Madonsela were taken in for questioning and subsequently released this morning.
The University will engage with the security company on what steps they will take against the officers.