One student was shot with rubber bullets and another was injured after she fell when police clashed with protesting students in Johannesburg on the first day of the higher education national shutdown.
The student who injured her right leg fell when police fired water cannons on Graf Street in Braamfontein was attended to by paramedics at the scene on Monday.
Another student was wounded when police used rubber bullets to disperse protesters.
While protests began peacefully at most institutions in Johannesburg in the morning, tensions were raised later. At the Central Johannesburg College, Parktown campus, security guards used pellets, pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse protesting students who stormed the facility to stop others attending classes.
After disrupting classes, the group went to join Wits University students in Braamfontein where they forced several businesses to close and blockaded streets with rocks and garbage.
The students also tried to force Rosebank College, along Jorissen Street, to close but did not succeed.
Police later dispersed them using water cannons. According to the SA Union of Students (SAUS), 10 universities were successfully shut down across the country.
All student formations have joined forces demanding that universities clear historic student debt and allow students to register for the 2021 academic year.
Wits student representative council (SRC) president Mpendulo Mfeka said students see the shutdown as a movement that cuts across political lines.
“We decided to unite because the cause is bigger. We understand that this is beyond us.”
Mfeka criticised police for their use of water cannons.
“It is a form of police brutality which a few media houses picked up ... Police should come and speak to us first. They must tell us…the reason why they are firing these water cannons and rubber bullets, because there is no law that we have broken.”
A while later, students blocked Solomon Street behind the University of Johannesburg's Bunting Road Campus in Auckland Park with burning tyres, rocks, and rubbish.
Meanwhile, higher education minister Blade Nzimande told SAUS in his official response that his department does not have money to support tertiary institutions to clear all students’ historic debt.
“I am aware that many institutions are doing what they can to assist students in need and to allow them to make payment arrangements so as to be able to register. However, institutions also have to remain financially sustainable in order to continue to operate effectively. The historical debt of NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] qualifying students is being addressed.”
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