Students threatened to render Tshwane University of Technology ungovernable on Wednesday after talks with management over fees fell through.
Unrest has broken out on the university’s Ga-Rankuwa campus, said a university spokesperson who would not elaborate.
The protest started spreading through the university’s six campuses on Wednesday, said Ga-Rankuwa Students’ Representative Council (SRC) president Philani Hlatshwayo.
Students at Soshanguve were turned back by police while staging an illegal march to the university’s Pretoria campus.
They were not demonstrating in solidarity with their peers at Ga-Rankuwa, but had the same grievances, said Hlatshwayo.
Students complain that the university has imposed a 100% fee increase instead of the previously agreed 6%.
They also accuse management of refusing to register students who have failed the same subject twice. Another grievance is that a promised student residence has not materialised.
In a protest over similar issues at the campus last year, students trashed lecture halls, setting fire to three of them, burnt tyres and held lecturers hostage.
About 3 000 students — all from the Ga-Rankuwa campus — blocked its gates again on Wednesday.
Only students writing supplementary exams will be allowed to enter the campus, said Hlatshwayo.
The SRC will continue its action at least until management reschedules the meeting, he said.
The SRC had refused to go ahead with talks on Tuesday afternoon in the absence of the vice-chancellor and other members of the university’s executive management committee.
They always stay away from meetings with students, only to later overrule any decisions made, Hlatshwayo charged.
The students were demanding that not only they be present, but also members of the university’s governing council, education department delegates, and representatives of the university’s other SRCs.
They were also insisting that the process be open to the media, he said. — Sapa