Arrested students to remain in jail
Zuma takes hard line against violence
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has thrown his weight behind embattled Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande as the fees crisis engulfing universities keeps campuses shut around the country.
Zuma pledged his “full support and that of cabinet” for Nzimande, the Presidency said yesterday.
Zuma’s intervention is significant in the light of an outright attack on the minister by the ANC Youth League earlier this week, raising concerns the crisis would be used to further factional battles in the governing party in a bid to weaken Nzimande and the SACP, of which he is the general secretary.
Nzimande alleged this week there were “other political agendas” behind continued protests following his announcement on Monday that the government would cover the fee increase for 2017 for poor students and the “missing middle”.
The Presidency said yesterday Zuma was “concerned about the violence” that had broken out following Nzimande’s announcement on fees.
He took a hard line on the destruction of property that has marked some of the protests, saying it was “a criminal offence and will be treated as such by the law enforcement authorities”.
Meanwhile 11 students that were arrested following protests that damaged the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Pietermaritzburg campus will have to spend the next seven days behind bars.
The 11 appeared briefly in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday, facing charges of public violence, interference with police operations and failure to adhere to a court order.
Prosecutor, advocate Pet Davids told the court there would be additional charges brought against the 11, including malicious damage to property and that the State would be opposing bail.
Davids said that the safety of other students could only be guaranteed if the accused remain in police custody, because they had already demonstrated reckless behaviour by engaging in an illegal protest.
Magistrate Miranda Boikhutso remanded the 11 in custody until September 30, for a formal bail application.
The 11 were arrested following protests at the university’s Pietermaritzburg campus on Thursday where the students clashed with police, cars were stoned and fires started in the university’s Malherbe residence. Police used rubber bullets, stun grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
At Stellenbosch University students marched from building to building yesterday, halting tests and threatening to “shut down” the university after rector and vice-chancellor Wim de Villiers failed to personally accept a memorandum.
Staff had no choice but to reschedule tests after the students got into some of the buildings.
And in Johannesburg the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) yesterday welcomed a #FeesMustFall protest march to its headquarters in Johannesburg by Wits University students.