Durban — KwaZulu-Natal police are investigating charges of public violence and malicious damage to property after university students allegedly torched a vehicle during violent protests.
This comes after the uMfolozi TVET College Esikhaleni campus students embarked on a protest action on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Angry students had decided to engage in a protest against the ongoing water shortages they have encountered since the commencement of the college classes two weeks ago.
Police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Nqobile Gwala said charges of public violence and malicious damage to property were being investigated by Esikhaleni SAPS. Gwala said the suspects allegedly set a car and a JoJo tank alight.
It was reported that on Wednesday morning that the students engaged in a protest march to voice their grievances against the water shortages they are faced with, the shortage of books, the lack of student cards as well as numerous other challenges.
Speaking to the Daily News, DA Alliance Students Organisation (DAso) member in KZN, Sthabelo Ntshangase said that during their protest, students damaged college property and torched a college vehicle, which prompted college management to dismiss the students and close the college with immediate effect.
“As DAso we condemn the closure of the college with immediate effect. We believe that management should have given the students at least 24 to 48 hours for them to vacate the college,” Ntshangase said.
“Some of the students come from far-off places, have no money to travel back home since they have just come to the college, and it is in the middle of the month, and their parents have no money.
“We fear for those students who found themselves having nowhere to sleep when they were chased out of the campus yesterday afternoon (Wednesday). This may even have resulted in them getting into all sorts of difficulties,” Ntshangase said.
He added that since the opening of the college two weeks ago, students had dealt with irregular water tanker deliveries and most of the time delivering insufficient water for the students, late at noon or in the afternoon, while the students would have needed water in the morning before going to class.
Since the college opened this year, Ntshangase said, Esikhawini campus students had had to deal with numerous problems such as book shortages, and student cards had not been provided to them this year. This has caused a lot of problems for them, as outsiders had entered the college campus freely and had been harassing and robbing the students.
“How can they expect the students to learn without books?” Ntshangase said they condemned in the strongest terms acts of vandalism by the students, including the torching of a college vehicle during a protest.
The students also raised the following issues:
- Classes have started, yet some of the students don’t have study materials, including books.
- Poor infrastructure at hostels.
- The lack of security on the campus is also a concern for those in hostels. Students had been chased by criminals inside the campus.
Responding to the impasse, uMfolozi TVET College communications manager Bhekani Ndlovu said the whole uMhlathuze Municipality was facing water shortages, not only the college. Ndlovu blamed the water tanker deliveries for the late deliveries.
“The other cause of the problem is that some of the students have chased the trucks away, questioning why only one truck was doing deliveries, instead of two or three trucks,” Ndlovu said.
He blamed the shortages of books on the service providers, whom he accused of delaying book deliveries, as the college had placed its orders long ago.
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