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South Africa: Protesting students torch university buildings South Africa: Protesting students torch university buildings
(about 4 hours later)
JOHANNESBURG — Protesting students in South Africa burned down several buildings at a university, forcing administrators to close the campus and telling students to leave, spokesman said Thursday JOHANNESBURG — Leaving behind charred, smoldering buildings, students were ordered on Thursday to abandon a South African university, where protests have turned violent.
An administration block that included a science center was burned down at the North-West University’s campus in the city of Mahikeng (also called Mafikeng) on Wednesday night, said university spokesman Koos Degenaar. Student protesters also burned down the residence of a dormitory supervisor. North-West University said protesting students burned an administration building and science center at the North-West University’s campus in the city of Mahikeng (also called Mafikeng) on Wednesday night, forcing administrators to close the campus indefinitely and tell students to leave.
The violence comes as student protests have erupted on college campuses across South Africa, often aimed at pressing for lower tuition, more student housing and at eliminating statues and other artworks that for some students represent South Africa’s racist past. South African President Jacob Zuma said: “No amount of anger should drive students to burn their own university and deny themselves and others education.”
On Thursday the university was quiet as students still in dorms were being evacuated, Degenaar said. The university in South Africa’s North West province is shut indefinitely. Student protests have erupted on college campuses across South Africa, often aimed at pressing for lower tuition, more student housing and at erasing remnants of South Africa’s racist past.
The violence there started after a Students Representatives Council meeting was disrupted by protesters, Degenaar said. In recent days, black and white students have even come to blows over the use of Afrikaans as a teaching language, an echo of the 1976 student uprising in the Soweto township south of Johannesburg against apartheid. Those bloody protests, which were put down by security forces using live ammunition at times, erupted over a rule that classes be taught in Afrikaans, considered to be the language of the white oppressor.
A suspended student leader was addressing his supporters when private security tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and tear gas, the university said in a statement. Students then pelted security guards with stones and burned a vehicle that belonged to the private security company, the statement said. In other violence at college campuses in recent days:
In chaotic scenes posted on social media, large police vehicles rolled onto the campus to restore order. Students retaliated by setting fire to campus property. — At the University of the Free State, black protesters disrupted a rugby match, leading mostly white spectators to run onto the field and attack the protesters. The university said in a statement that “the reaction from the group of spectators ... not only opened old wounds, it trampled, literally and figuratively, on the dignity and humanity of other human beings.”
The university had previously obtained a court interdict barring disruptions on campus, in the wake of ongoing student protests throughout the country, Degenaar said. — At the University of Pretoria, student members of the Economic Freedom Fighters opposition party fought members of AfriForum, an Afrikaner cultural group, according to an online video. Morne Mostert, leader of the cultural group’s youth wing, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that rather than do away with Afrikaans, universities should develop education in black African languages.
Violence at the North-West University campus started after some students disrupted the inauguration of a new student council, said university spokesman Koos Degenaar.
Defying a court order, Benz Mabengwane, a suspended student leader, entered the university and addressed his supporters. Private security officers tried to disperse the crowd using rubber bullets and tear gas as students threw stones at them.
Mabengwane denied that students were behind the fires.
Mabengwane is part of a dissolved student council calling for the removal of Afrikaans as a teaching language, which it says unfairly benefits white students on the university’s historically white Potchefstroom campus. It also wants students who are unable to pay their tuition to be allowed to continue their studies, said Mabengwane.
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Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.