The University of Witwatersrand has shared that approximately 200 students marched to the property of the institution’s vice-chancellor's home and allegedly threatened to set it alight.
The university has condemned all forms of violence and also implored the students, student leaders, and other parties to exercise maximum restraint.
The university’s student leaders have argued that this was a peaceful walk where students were seeking to be addressed by the Vice-Chancellor regarding their demands.
The Wits Student Representative Council has explained that homeless students in need of accommodation decided to peacefully sleep outside the Vice Chancellor’s house in a bid to demonstrate the state of hopelessness and how dire the situation is.
However, in a statement, Higher Education Minister Dr. Blade Nzimande said:
The best place to develop localised mitigation strategies to deal with students' challenges is at the institutional level.
The Department of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and Universities South Africa also raised concerns regarding students in some of the public universities.
This comes after these stakeholders received news of student protests taking place at the University of Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela University. The protests have been seen as causing instability in the affected institutions.
In the meeting, these two parties agreed that all institutions should urgently convene meetings through forums such as the Institutional Forums and with the leadership of the students, to deal with all outstanding registration challenges.
It is for this reason that all Higher Education stakeholders in these institutions have been encouraged to revive and actively play their role in actively engaging on challenges facing the universities.
Nzimande has also urged all students to return to class in order to enable the commencement of the academic year without any disruptions.
