North West University management says it has put measures into place to ensure that the Mahikeng campus reopens for the registration of students on Friday morning.
The campus was forced to close on Monday after students embarked on a seven-day national shutdown of all public universities.
They are demanding the eradication of debt, free registration for the poor and a revision of guidelines for accreditation of student accommodation.
University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dan Kgwadi says they have intensified security to allow the registration process to take place.
“After beefing up security at the Mafikeng Campus as promised, management is now ready to reopen the campus for the purposes of registration and this we are going to do it Friday the 31st to Sunday (2nd February). We are going to work overtime over the weekend to finalise the registration process,” says Kgwadi.
Protesting students at the North West University’s Mahikeng campus say they are not backing down from their shutdown despite the university’s deployment of a tactical task team to strengthen security.
Students have been restricting staff members from entering the campus since the shutdown.
Student Representative Council President Theo Seepamore says the deployment of the task team is unwarranted.
“It doesn’t sit well with us because they are militarising our university and the same money that is paid for this service provider is the money that could have been paid to students with outstanding balances or money that we can use to improve the life of a black student.”
Meanwhile, university management has since announced that it will meet with parents of students on Saturday to update them on the situation at campus.
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