Tshwane University of Technology. Picture: Supplied
A member of the Democratic Alliance (DA) student’s movement has been stabbed eight times at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) Soshanguve campus following its Student Representative Council (SRC) elections, the university has confirmed.
Crezanne Bosch, a member of the provincial legislature as well as a constituency leader for the DA students organisation in Gauteng, alerted The Citizen to the incident. Bosch says it is alleged to have been a member of the Pan-Africanist Movement of Azania (Pasma), who committed the stabbing.
“I do not know the full extent of what the fight was about, but TUT had SRC elections and after this, when the vote counting started, they closed the voting stations and some of the students from the different parties were waiting for the results to be counted.
“They hired additional security deployed specifically for election day to ensure there was no volatile situation like in previous years, but these security stood by and did absolutely nothing” as the stabbing took place, Bosch says.
Bosch confirmed that the victim was being treated at the George Mukhari Hospital in northern Pretoria, and that she had visited him. She could not comment on his medical status and also said she was reluctant to name him at this point for safety reasons.
“I’m waiting at the hospital to see the student but he has been admitted and his family is with him,” she said.
“We urge that the police finalises the investigation as soon as possible and arrest the fellow student who did the stabbing, it’s unacceptable to have this kind of violence at a higher learning institution.
“The university must hold an investigation to find out why security didn’t intervene,” she said.
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TUT spokesperson Willa de Ruyter confirmed that the stabbing took place, but said it wasn’t linked to the SRC elections but was allegedly some kind of personal dispute.
“We are aware of it, there was an incident, student currently in hospital in a stable condition and doing well,” she said.
In response, Bosch said that “regardless of what the issue was, it still happened on campus, university property. And security did nothing to stop it or assist.
“The university has a duty to protect their students. It’s supposed to be a safe space for higher learning, not as volatile as it is,” she added.
Bosch said that there was allegedly another case last night of a student being stabbed at the same campus, adding that as far as she knew that student was admitted to hospital and released earlier on Friday.
The campus has been plagued by violence at the time of SRC elections before.
A student was shot dead at the same campus following scuffles that took place after a voting dispute in August last year.
Witnesses to the SRC fracas said police shot at students with live ammunition, where one was killed and another wounded.
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