Members of the Mi7 Security company employed by TUT can be seen standing guard outside the Pretoria West main campus, 3 March 2020, Pretoria. According to TUT SRC the protest has been called off following meetings between the SRC and TUT management. Picture: Jacques Nelles
A week-long impasse between the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and protesting students is cleared, and the academic programme is expected to resume again.
The institution’s spokesperson, Willa de Ruyter, said the academic programme will continue on Wednesday following meetings with student leaders. All activities at the Pretoria campuses would resume.
This comes in the wake of fresh protests at the Pretoria (Soshanguve) and Ga-Rankuwa campuses on Monday.
Student protests erupted last week, which led to TUT management suspending academic activities on all its campuses.
On Friday, it announced an agreement was reached between management and student leaders that all academic activities would resume on Monday, however, protests continued at the Pretoria campuses.
“The situation on all campuses will be monitored continuously to ensure the safety of the campus community,” De Ruyter said.
TUT north campus SRC president Khaya Mlangeni previously said students were protesting over issues including Nsfas, student housing, phasing out of certain programmes and problems with transport.
He previously warned that TUT would remain closed and protests would continue until management responded positively to their grievances.
Last week, the police were called to TUT’s Soshanguve and Ga-Rankuwa campuses to quell the unrest.
Mlangeni had told News24 that police fired stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesting students.
No arrests were made, and no damage to property has been reported since the protests started.
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