Tensions are brewing at Wits University where EFF regalia-clad protesters have clashed with campus security, on Tuesday morning.
Watch: Wits EFF SRC clashes with campus security
The university’s student representative council (SRC) led by the EFF Student Command staged a sit-in at the finance department. Some went as far as spending the night at the student centre, determined to continue their fight for access to higher education.
FeesOfficeShutDown! #WeWillWait come hook or crook the insurrection put forward by wits shall fall #witseffsc ❤️ pic.twitter.com/YFvaVsJWRi
— Wits EFFSC (@WitsEFF) February 23, 2021
We are committed to the call for Free, Quality and Decolonized Education. #WitsSizofundaNgenkani2021 pic.twitter.com/r30BVY1Sxm
— Wits EFFSC (@WitsEFF) February 23, 2021
On Tuesday morning, however, their picket was cut short by campus security guards who were instructed by Wits management to forcefully handle the protesters and throw them out of the building.
— Wits EFFSC (@WitsEFF) February 24, 2021
Then Wits does what it is good at pic.twitter.com/SudLIbvooS
— Wits EFFSC (@WitsEFF) February 24, 2021
What are the protesters demands?
At the heart of the protests are the same cries that ruptured the nation during the 2015 Fees Must Fall movement. More than five years later and the fees protests ignited by Wits’ Shaeera Kalla still plague the tertiary.
The EFFSC claims that the tertiary has refused to ease its readmission policy. Students with a debt backlog are not allowed to register for this year’s curriculum and others, the group says, are cast out for not being able to afford the exorbitant tuition fees.
To this end, Wits has not released a statement on the events unfolding at its campus. The protesters, on the other hand, have vowed to keep the momentum going until their cries for access to higher education and other basic benefits like financial and accommodation support are heard.
This is a developing story.
