Wits guards are injured in scuffle
Students retaliate after claims of being manhandled, fondled and throttled
YESTERDAY’S altercation between protesting students and private security guards at Wits University that left four of the guards with minor injuries has both sides crying foul.
Students claim they were manhandled and bruised by overzealous security guards following an overnight picket, while the guards accuse students of striking first, using steel dustbins, sticks, chairs, bottles, bricks and other objects to fight off the eviction from the picket area.
As part of the #FeesMustFall movement, a group of about 15 to 20 students occupied the Solomon Mahlangu House on Monday night.
This was part of the movement’s ongoing protest to secure free tertiary education for poor students and fight against registration fees and financial exclusion.
The overnight picket was disrupted around 5.40am yesterday as the group were awoken by numerous members of campus control security.
According to one student, who elected not to be named for safety reasons, security members began reading out a notice from deputy vice-chancellor for transformation, human resources and advancement Tawana Kupe, saying they had five minutes to vacate the building.
The student claimed the security guards insisted they sign the notice, but the group said they would not move.
A few minutes later, the security team returned with backup, and “suddenly became aggressive”.
“We tried to explain why we were there. We were not there to fight. Out of the blue, and I honestly mean this, out of the blue, they became aggressive,” she said.
The student said she was fondled and throttled as the guards tried to drag her out of the building, while one of her peers was undressed and her breasts touched in the process.
When asked about the injuries sustained by the security guards, the student said: “If this means that for us to fight for our rights that blood will be shed, it will be shed.”
Meanwhile, a fellow student, Tshepiso Modupe, said: “If someone pushes you, undresses you and touches your boobs, you can’t not react.”
Modupe said the guards were “trying to teach (the students) a lesson”, and that if the administration wanted to speak with them, they should arrive t hemselve s , instead of sending in security teams.
However, the security guards from Fidelity Security Services told a different story, saying they were forced to call for backup after students attacked them while they were trying to move them from the building.
Sitting in a Joburg Emergency Services ambulance, nursing a battered knee and bleeding arm, security guard José Pintarr said there was no negotiation between guards and students before the violence flared.
His colleague, Thulani Hlongwane, was hit on the head with a bottle, and said two more of his colleagues had been injured while they tried to hold back the students.
While the campus appeared to be quiet for the remainder of the day, dozens of private and campus security guards monitored the premises, preventing anyone from entering Solomon Mahlangu House.
On Monday, registrations were closed because of the protests and postponed to today, and Wits management has said security would be present.
The university confirmed the eviction, saying “the occupation (of the building) infringed on the rights of students who wanted to register, many of them the poorest of the poor who required help in face-to-face registration”.
If someone pushes and undresses you, you can’t not react