UKZN SRC distances itself from violent protests

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Student Representative Council has distanced itself from violent protest action that has caused the academic programme to be suspended at all campuses.

SRC Secretary-General, Nqobi Msesane, says they condemn the torching of infrastructure and do not believe young academics can resort to violent means.

The University’s Edgewood campus in Pinetown saw sporadic protest action on Tuesday while a building was set alight at the Pietermaritzburg campus on Monday.

Msesane says their concerns relate to registration and students’ accommodation.

“We condemn the burning of infrastructure. Nonetheless, we have issues that are outstanding as the university. Students cannot be cleared for registration simply because they owe the university. Students are resolute that nothing is going to happen on these campuses. We don’t know that those are students who are vandalising and burning the university’s property. We don’t believe that students who are academics can resort to burning the infrastructure that they need so we do not believe that those are students. It might be people that are sent to the university by whoever, they want to incur whatever they want to incur. We don’t believe our students did that.”