FOUR Eastern Cape Technikon students appeared in the Butterworth Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday in connection with the alleged assasination of provincial student leader Xola Nene on the campus on Monday. Police representative Sergeant Namhla Mdleleni said Ncebenkosi Sirenya (23) Luyanda Nogaga (23) Mncedisi Mazomba (20) and Mtunzi Ntutela (22) appeared on a murder charge. They are to remain in custody until their next court appearance on October 31. South African Students Congress (Sasco) provincial chairman Nene (26) was shot in the student village shortly after midnight. Nene was a student at Fort Hare University, but he had been at the technikon to help the institution’s Sasco branch campaign for the annual student representative council elections. Police said a member of the technikon’s Pan Africanist Student Movement (Pasma) had handed himself over to the police. He allegedly gave police two firearms, one licensed and the other unlicensed. Mdleleni said it was believed the incident was related to the results of the SRC elections. Sasco and Pasma are major rivals in student politics throughout the country. – Sapa