‘Even if they point their guns at us,

In the eye of the storm at Wits is SRC leader Nompendulo Mkatshwa, who is giving her voice, vision and valour to students and protesters

Students gather outside t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f Wi t - watersrand medical camp u s i n P a r k t o wn . I t i s Tuesday morning. They sing struggle songs. Women and men, mostly twentysomethings, clap, chant and toyi-toyi in the Johannesburg heat, which already sits at around 30°C. They form a large circle. In the centre, a young woman starts a song. She marches forward and backward, fist in the air. The rest follow her.

The ground reverberates beneath her feet. She gets on her knees and starts to clap to a beat. The crowd follows. She sings.

Siyaya siyaya noma besidubula, besishaya, besikhomba, siyaya — we are going, we are going, even if they shoot at us, beat us, point at us (with guns), we are going. The crowd sings. This is the new incoming Wits Student Representative Council (SRC) president, Nompendulo Mkatshwa (22), who will begin her term officially on November 1. A third-year BSc geography student, she is one of the leaders of the #FeesMustFall movement that started at Wits University last Wednesday and has spread to other universities, including in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria, and at Fort Hare and Rhodes.

Wits management last Wednesday announced that fees will be hiked by 10.5% for 2016 and that the upfront registration fee will be increased by 6%, bringing the initial registration fee to R9 900. At the time Wits management told the Mail & Guardian it had no choice but to implement student fee increases as state funding to universities was declining.

Wits chief financial officer Linda Jarvis said that without fee increases the quality of Wits’s academic teaching would be at risk. The decision was taken by the institution on the day that saw galvanised Wits students march under the b a n n e r # Wi t s F e e s Mu s t F a l l , a protest referred to as “day one” by student leaders.

The protest intensified. On day two, more students joined in and started to block traffic on Jorissen Street in Braamfontein.

On day three, the students took over Wits’s Senate House and asked to meet the university’s vice-chancellor, Adam Habib, and the university council. They demanded a 0% fee increase. It was on this day that the protest became tense.

Mkatshwa tells the M&G that security guards fired pepper spray into Senate House, which the students now call Solomon Mahlangu House.

University spokesperson Shirona Patel said that the pepper spray had been fired by an external security guard who had “felt threatened” while escorting council members from their cars to Senate House.

Some students panicked and fled but others retaliated by throwing water bottles and brandishing sticks and chairs. At this point, the students seemed to be led by student Mcebo Freedom Dlamini, who ear-