Down student leaders
clashed with the authorities on Braamfontein’s streets on Monday, said they felt abandoned because they were left to fend for themselves. (See “Scrap collectors join student fight”.)
“Where is the leadership, comrades? We are here fighting police alone,” said one bachelor of arts student who did not want to be named. “I don’t see the leadership directing us on how to fight.”
A second-year student criticised the SRC for asking them to place their bodies on the line in the face of an intensified crackdown by the police, but remained absent themselves.
One of the most notable absentees over the past three weeks of protests has been the sitting SRC president, Nompendulo Mkatshwa, who led the movement in a march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria last year.
She fell from grace among some Wits students after being profiled on numerous occasions as the poster child for #FeesMustFall, including on the cover of Destiny magazine.
This week Mkatshwa helped to facilitate the release of students from police custody and made a brief appearance at the Hillbrow magistrate’s court. But she was absent from several mass meetings and last week’s informal general assembly.
The Wits leaders said their focus would now shift towards co-ordinating a national shutdown and a march to the treasury or the Union Buildings in Pretoria, as well as on a civil case against the government to force them to fund free education.