The price of protesting
Some students leaders are still fighting for their release as universities are getting on with business.
As final exams appear to be forging ahead at most universities after protest disruptions, many student leaders are now sitting in prison.
The few leaders who had been released, had little or no time to prepare for the final exams.
Protests over tertiary tuition fees have brought academic activities at several universities came to a standstill more than once in the past months.
EFF student Command TUT chairperson Thanzi Nematshema criticised the government this week for the continued detention of some students.
“We are very unhappy with the continued detention of our comrades because majority of the universities have started with examinations and they are going to miss this very important papers,” he said.
“We have called on government to release them because if they don’t we will have to do something,”
Some universities have reached an agreement with student organisations to end the #FeesMustFall protests and focus on the completion of the current calendar year.
Nematshema said the agreement would not last if students like Wits University’s Mcebo Dlamini were not released.
“Exams are going on and they are here for educational purposes we have to ensure that they are released so that they can fulfil their mandates here,” said Nematshema.
“If this situation doesn’t get solved in the near future, we will be forced to go back to the drawing board and do something about it.”
More than 800 students have been arrested countrywide in the wake of the #FeesMustfall protests.
The EFF student command leader said most of the student leaders arrested in Pretoria had been released.
He accused the police of having arrested some on spurious charges.
“Some of these students have been arrested on trumped-up charges and were arrested while sleeping in their residents,” he said.
The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) meanwhile suspended seven students for disrupting the academic programme at the Soshanguve campus.
“We have suspended seven students that were trying to disrupt the proceedings at the campus pending an investigation,” said deputy vice chancellor Stanley Mukhola.
“None of the suspended seven students qualified to write an examination and as such were misleading those that were preparing for their examination.”
Mukhola could not confirm if the suspension was related to the #FeesMustFall protests.
“At this point you could say it is, but we don’t want to speculate because there are criminal elements behind these current disruptions,” he said.
“Some of these students have been here for more than six years and as such they are not going to be allowed back in the university by the system next year as a student is only allowed to do an undergraduate diploma for up to six years.”
The university has suspended face-to-face classes at its Soshanguve campus in the wake of the current disruptions.
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