Violent protests force South African universities to close
Violent demonstrations and arson attacks that burnt down campus buildings forced at least three South African universities to shut their doors on Thursday in a new wave of student protests.
Universities have been a focus for unrest in recent months over issues including rising tuition fees, allegations of racism and a dispute over the use of the Afrikaans language.
Several buildings at the North West University’s Mafikeng campus were torched on Wednesday including a science centre and an administration building which held student records.
President Jacob Zuma condemned the destruction of property on campuses including at University of Free State, University of Pretoria, and the University of Cape Town.
“No amount of anger should drive students to burn their own university and deny themselves and others education,” he said in a statement.
“The burning of university buildings at a time when we are prioritising the education of our youth is inexplicable and can never be condoned.”
Police used rubber bullets and teargas to disperse students at North-West University who left a trail of destruction during a protest over what they said was a rigged election of a student council.
The university said Thursday that the campus was closed indefinitely.
A protest at the University of Pretoria over the use of Afrikaans in teaching led to clashes between black and white students, also forcing the university to shut down.
The Afrikaans language is associated with the apartheid era, when it was forced on black students as a medium of instruction.
“The university is currently meeting with various student bodies and stakeholders to address the issues affecting learning,” University of Pretoria spokeswoman Anna-Retha Bouwer told AFP.
University leaders issued a statement saying the recent unrest was planned by groups “to deliberately disrupt and destabilise our universities through intimidation and violence.”
Racial tension also flared up at the Free State University in Bloemfontein when a rugby match was interrupted earlier this week.
Black protesters walked in a line across the pitch during a game, before hundreds of white spectators ran on and a mass brawl erupted.
Last week the office of the University of Cape Town’s vice chancellor was petrol-bombed, and paintings ripped from walls and burnt outside.
South Africa has been roiled by a string of racial disputes that have exposed deep divisions more than two decades after the end of white-minority rule.
Last year massive student protests pushed the government into abandoning planned tuition fee hikes.
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3 Comments
How to fix the naira against the dollar, it is simple some
Nigerians have very deep pockets funds that have being acquired illegally
through shady deals with the Government in power. This are the group of
Nigerians that are bent on destroying the economy so that we will go back to
the statues co come 2019. This group of Nigerians have converted their houses
into currency volts, the forex demand is artificial they are buying up the
available dollars to stock pile come 2019. There is a state Governor in North
central Nigeria that sold the state Government owns shares in blue chip
companies and paid into the bank account of a BDC to be converted into foreign
currency, this is the mentality of most of the corrupt government officials it
is simple a principle of demand and supply. What the Government can do to stop
this artificial currency demand is that the currency should be change. With that
master stroke the currency speculators will be forced to bring out the stock
pile of naira they have hidden in private volts into the banking system, at
first this will push up the demand of forex to an all time high but after a month’s
with strict observance of the cashless policy the artificial demand will be
curbed, genuine business men will be able to source their forex need through
the official channel and the ability of this economic terrorist will be
completely eliminated.
What will General Buhari discuss or dialogue with this group of people? What will he be able to understand? Truthfully.
What a waste of time. you are trying to fix the economy, yet you don’t include private business people and citizen, who would bring the reality of the situation to the meeting. you refuse to discuss your meeting with the public, who you need to be educating and giving some kind of guidelines on what is being done to fix the economy. This is yet another waste of time and money, because the solutions to Nigeria economy is simple and already out there. All that is need is implementation. we need to reduce our importation of food. yet the federal and state government haven’t push hard enough to bring more arable land under cultivation. instead of giving away money on social benefit item, the government should have used that money to provide the necessary farm input to young Nigeria, who can farm federal and state land. we need electricity to power any kind of growth. yet the government hasn’t done anything about increasing the supply of gas, expanding the grid, metering the nation and updating facilities.
We will review and take appropriate action.