North West University students hopeful their demands will be met

Students at the North West University’s Mahikeng campus say they are hopeful that their demands will be met and life on campus will return to normal. Students have been protesting against financial exclusion since Monday, barricading roads leading to the university.

They say recent engagements with university management have raised hopes for financially excluded students.

“Students who are doing their final year are going to be registering whether they owe the university and means are going to be made for them to register. And we are only waiting for the last meeting today between ourselves and the campus management together with the institutional one to find those students returning to register and those who have academically excluded to make sure that they registered,” says South African Students Congress’ (Sasco) Paseka Molete.

Meanwhile, the university says the campus will remain closed until further notice.

University spokesperson, Christopher Motabogi, confirms that they have been engaging with student leaders.

“A series of meetings have been held between the university management and student leaders. However, at this time, we are not aware of any concrete agreements that have been reached. However, it is important to note that the university management committee will be meeting, where these issues will be discussed. We are hopeful that after that meeting or some time during the weekend we will be in a position to communicate any concrete solutions,” says Motabogi.

The campus was closed earlier this week: 

Police in the province are investigating at least four cases of public violence and malicious damage to property after some of the university’s infrastructure was damaged when the students’ protest turned violent.