Three people were arrested during another surge of unrest at Unisa’s Durban campus. A group of about 300 enraged students took to the streets on Monday.
This, The Mercury understands, was after the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) failed to proffer some of their funding, leaving students in the lurch ahead of their first assignment deadline on Friday.
But their demonstration took a violent turn when some students allegedly began stoning the police officers monitoring the situation.
The officers responded with stun grenades, causing the mob to flee.
They detained three woman, believed to have been seen leading the charge, in the process. Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbhele said they would appear in court today.
Last week, students “locked in” Unisa staff members and demanded they work for “24 hours” to register them.
This just days after a week-long staff strike for better pay, had ended.
Regional spokesperson for the university Jo Cossavella said yesterday afternoon that the students had met with their leadership earlier in the day but that no-one had reported back to the university afterwards.
Cossavella said the university was initially unaware of the students’ grievances when they started protesting but they were later advised these had to do with NSFAS funding.
She said NSFAS would be visiting Unisa on Thursday to address students and that the university’s campus would be closed until then.
NSFAS did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.
Wage related protest action at DUT entered its fourth week on Monday. The workers, the institution's management and the three labour unions (Nehawu, Tenusa and NTEU) representing staff had entered into a mediation process presided over by the CCMA.
In a press release issued jointly by Nehawu and the SA Students' Congress (Sasco), Sasco reiterated its support for Nehawu's fight for a living wage and better working conditions. The students highlighted the negative impact of the wage strike, urging the two parties to speedily come to a resolution.
Talks between the labour unions and the university continued, with the agreement that they would reconvene at 3pm at DUT on Tuesday.