Student leaders at the University of Johannesburg’s (UJ) Bunting Road campus were regrouping on Tuesday morning after being banned from marching to the nearby former Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) campus.
The Bunting Road campus was previously part of Technikon Witwatersrand.
Earlier, a large police contingent blocked the route the students were expecting to take in three waiting buses.
The bus drivers left after being told they would not be allowed through and students were deciding what to do next.
They had been ordered not to speak to the media but had grievances relating to the merger between Technikon Witwatersrand and RAU to form the multicampus UJ.
”How can we meet the vice-president like this?” one angry student leader asked, referring to a meeting scheduled with the university management for noon.
Their cardboard slogans included: ”Racism stink!”, ”Don’t take us for granted” and ”One bullet, one bouncer”.
The students were protesting against the use of both English and Afrikaans as a media of instruction and the ”skewed allocation of resources” between campuses.
The old RAU and the Technikon Witwatersrand were officially merged into the UJ as part of the Department of Education’s restructuring plans for higher education. — Sapa