The six-hour hostage drama at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg appeared to be over at 4.10pm on Wednesday when police were seen leading the handcuffed hostage-taker out of Senate House.
A Sapa reporter on the scene saw police leading the man away.
The suspended student took a female university employee hostage earlier on Wednesday in an apparent bid to be readmitted.
Both African National Congress Women’s League president Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and Education Minister Kader Asmal arrived at the university during the course of the day to negotiate with the student, by telephone from an office in Senate House adjacent to the one where he was holding the woman.
The student, reportedly armed with a knife, took the woman hostage mid-morning and tied the woman’s hands with a computer cable.
It was not clear whether the hostage had been hurt during her ordeal. There was no sign of the hostage immediately after the drama ended.
Members of the SA Police Service’s special task force were deployed inside building and the area around the building was closed to the public.
Throughout the day, the campus was crowded with students who had arrived for orientation and registration at the beginning of the academic year.
The university indicated earlier it would hold a news conference on the drama at 5.30pm.
Earlier, police said the student, studying for a BA degree had been suspended for non-payment of study fees and had apparently taken the woman hostage in a desperate effort to be re-instated.
The student has also asked the university to write off his tuition fee debt. – Sapa