Safety fears: Vuyani Pambo
Details of #FeesMustFall leaders at Wits University being targeted by police emerged this week. They revealed that they are under constant surveillance and have narrowly escaped being arrested.
Student leaders described how police raid their rooms after midnight and chase them down on campus. “They want us to engage but they continue to target our leadership,” said an ANC Youth League member and #FeesMustFall leader. “We can’t even sleep in our rooms at the residence. Some of us had to move back home because police are looking for us each night.”
On Monday morning, an Economic Freedom Fighters-aligned student leader had to jump out of a second-floor window of the Umthombo building and flee towards Braam-fontein to escape police officers chasing her.
Wits students representative council (SRC) secretary general Fasiha Hassan said leaders have been harassed since the protests started three weeks ago, but police reaction had escalated this week.
“I was followed home on several occasions and I haven’t been able to go home. It’s a mess,” she said.
“This week another student leader was cornered by police and had to hide in a lecture hall. We’ve even been informed that the Wits council handed over a list of names to the higher-level police unit last week. We keep getting calls and messages to warn us not to go home and be aware. For now, it seems we can only be around spaces where there’s a lot of people.”
Wits spokesperson Shirona Patel denied the university was assisting the police in any way.
The police denied targeting student leaders but said they would arrest anyone who broke the law or incited others to do so.
A student leader who had been arrested said the police had raided his university residence room in the early hours of the morning at least four times over the past two weeks.
“I even have to make sure I’m not in my room after midnight or 2am. That’s when they usually come looking for us … to take us away in the night with no witnesses,” he said.
Eleven people were arrested this week and nine of them released on Wednesday. Two remained in custody at the Hillbrow police station on charges of public violence and vandalism — their release became a rallying cry at a meeting in Solomon Mahlangu House.
Students cheered when leaders announced they would demand that protesters be granted amnesty from police charges or disciplinary action.
But leaders appeared divided about how to respond to the police push-back. Although some argued that the police presence should be met with “militant resistance”, others seemed unhappy with the insistence on recruiting students to go to the steps of the Great Hall, where clashes with police were at their most violent.
On Tuesday, former SRC president Shaeera Kalla objected to 200 students leaving the safety of the Holy Trinity Church adjacent to the campus to join the fight against police on the steps of the Great Hall, after they were convinced to do so by fellow leader Vuyani Pambo.
“We didn’t agree to this. We can’t meet there because it’s a war zone,” Kalla said. “I mean, I can’t continue to justify doing this to students.”
Within two minutes, the church courtyard had cleared and within half an hour tensions at the Great Hall steps began to simmer as students sang struggle songs and whistled at police.
Mcebo Dlamini, one of the most outspoken #FeesMustFall leaders, watched as students broke apart concrete dustbins to use as weapons. “We are forcing them [management] into talks now. We said, ‘close the campus so we can consult on the demands’ and instead they brought in the police. Now we are responding,” he warned.
Moments later, as police started chasing students suspected of throwing rocks, Dlamini and other students tackled private security guards and took their shields and helmets.
The battle between police and students seemed to be co-ordinated by about 20 people who would throw stones and then retreat to where journalists and workers were seated. Later, the police opened fire on journalists and workers with a water cannon and stun grenades.
The likes of Dlamini and Pambo are able to rally students behind them during confrontations with police. But students who 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.