Still no end in sight
Student shot 13 times in yet more clashes
WITS University students have accused the police of brutality after a #FeesMustFall movement leader, Shaeera Kalla, was shot multiple times and several others also injured as students marched on campus yesterday.
The protests have continued unabated despite warnings of dire consequences for the universities, students, matriculants and ultimately the economy.
Yesterday, Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe warned that about a million matriculants could lose their placements in universities and colleges if the higher education institutions didn’t complete their academic year.
“If the academic year is lost and the universities and colleges do not reach finality this year, almost a million matriculants will not be admitted into higher education,” he said in Pretoria yesterday.
As Wits continues to grapple with the grim prospect of suspending the academic programme, the University of Cape Town announced yesterday it had suspended all undergraduate classes for the remainder of the year because of the disruptions over the past three days.
On Wednesday, the University of the Western Cape announced that it had suspended all face-toface classes until further notice, while the fate of several other universities remained uncertain.
Radebe said: “The ripple effect is such that all students from first year to final year would be affected and ultimately the economy, as no new skilled graduates would enter the job market.
“Consequently, those who would have graduated as medical doctors, engineers, accountants, teachers and various other professions will no longer be in a position to enter the economy.”
He reiterated the government’s call that students’ concerns be dealt with through dialogue while the academic programme continued.
At Wits, the protests continued despite a visit to campus on Wednesday by prominent South Africans, among them founding Cosatu leader Jay Naidoo and former public protector Thuli Madonsela.
Madonsela said she supported the call for free tertiary education, but in a peaceful way.
Yesterday, however, violence again flared up at Wits when the police fired rubber bullets at protesting students.
Kalla, who is a former Student Representative Council leader, was shot 13 times even though she held her hands up, students said.
The Wits SRC said students had been singing peacefully when police fired at them with rubber bullets. They also used teargas.
First-year student Yamkela Gola said: “Shaeera approached the police with her hands raised in order to negotiate for the students to hold a meeting. The police did not want to engage her. They were very aggressive and released a stun grenade.”
University spokesperson Shirona Patel confirmed the shooting and said Kalla was taken to hospital.
“Reports from campus security were that a student leader was shot nine times by police. Wits security and campus control don’t have guns or rubber bullets,” Patel said.
She added that several students were treated at the campus health and wellness centre, and one, who had a dislocated leg, was taken to hospital by the dean of students and campus nurse.
Patel said protesting students had disrupted a lecture and tore up test papers on the west campus. Police reacted by dispersing them.
Earlier, the university said police were investigating arson after a section of a library was set alight, damaging about 100 books, on Wednesday night.
Also yesterday, students calmly marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria to demand free education.
Once at the Union Buildings they became agitated when a representative from the Presidency came out to receive their memorandum. They demanded to see President Jacob Zuma and started shaking the fence that separated them, chanting “Who are you?”
Students refused to hand over their memorandum, and officers had to escort Presidency officials away.
Police used stun grenades and water cannons to disperse the students from the Union Buildings grounds.
In their memorandum, students said they demanded “free, quality, decommodified and decolonised (education) now”.
A STUDENT, in court for setting fire to a security office with two officers trapped inside, was released on R3 000 bail yesterday.
Byron Dick, 26, appeared in the Bellville District Court before magistrate Ronald Rickerts.
He is a student at the Bellville campus of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and is alleged to have been involved in two recent blazes on the campus.
Dick said he had only R1 500, and defence advocate Carlos Langeveldt told the court that Dick’s parents had come from Joburg for the case, and R1 500 was all they could afford.
The lawyer said the father had recently been retrenched, and the family had to survive on the mother’s R4 000 monthly salary.
The parents still had to return to Joburg, he said, and reminded the court that the purpose of bail was to secure an accused person’s attendance at his or her trial, not to punish.
However, the magistrate said the amount had to be commensurate with the gravity of the charges – public violence, arson, two counts of attempted murder and a violation of a high court order, granted during student unrest last year.
He said the alleged offences were categorised under schedule 5 of the Bail Act, which placed an onus on Dick to persuade the court that his release was in the interests of justice.
The bail application was not opposed by prosecutor Stefans Venter, who said Dick had no previous convictions, outstanding warrants for his arrest or pending criminal cases.
The magistrate said the amount was the same as set on Wednesday for 12 students charged with public violence.
If a student applied for admission to tertiary education, it meant the student was intelligent, the magistrate told Dick.
He added: “Such a person can decide what is right or wrong.”
He said the court’s broad duty was to ensure these heinous offences were not committed by someone who did not respect the country’s freedom.
He added: “If that’s the course that these people choose, it is the court’s duty to ensure our legacy is not destroyed. Freedom must be obtained through education, not the destruction of property.
“If these are people who want to destroy property, the courts must act to stop it immediately.”
The magistrate said the court had unique powers to decide what amount of bail was reasonable, but would not readily interfere with the prosecutor’s recommendation. The prosecutor was in charge of all prosecutions, he said.
Among the bail conditions was one banning Dick from leaving the Western Cape without permission from the investigating officer.
Rickerts warned him: “This means if you want to visit your parents in Joburg, you first get permission from the investigating officer.”
He cautioned Dick that if he breached any of the conditions, his bail would be revoked, he would be rearrested “and you will not get bail again from any court in this country”.
On the attempted murder charges, Dick is alleged to have set the campus security office alight with a petrol bomb and to have locked two security guards in the burning office. The guards were rescued and rushed to hospital.
The public violence charge accuses Dick of petrol-bombing first the university’s administration building and then the security office. On the arson charge, he is alleged to have set the two buildings alight.
The final charge alleges he ignored a high court order banning anyone doing anything illegal on campus – issued after an urgent application last year to curb student unrest. – ANA