POLOKWANE – Classes at the University of Limpopo were suspended on Wednesday following protesting students demanding, among other things, a bar on campus.
In a video circulating on social media, a SASCO student can be seen asking representatives from the university for a bar to be established on campus so students can drink in a safe environment.
SASCO disrupted classes today at the University of Limpopo because they “demand a students’ bar.” Of all the pressing issues students face there, a students bar is the number one priority for SASCO!Talk about skewed priorities! pic.twitter.com/3lnphOB4S7
— SollyMalatsi (@SollyMalatsi) March 13, 2019
In the video, shared by the DA’s Solly Malatsi, UL’s SRC secretary-general Thabiso Molepo can be heard saying “our students are being stabbed left, right and centre when they are going to drink.”
Molepo added that he knows students are already drinking, but that a bar on campus would allow the students to drink in a safe environment.
Protests then turned violent on campus with SASCO students clashing with EFF and BLF students.
https://twitter.com/PETRUSNGATE1/status/1105820871560695808
Current situation at university of Limpopo, comrades are in a war pic.twitter.com/rvH3bsQnGJ
— Sir James???? ⚖️⚖️ (@Lloyd_Maluks) March 13, 2019
When asked about the bar, the University’s acting spokesperson, Johannes Selepe, said that he had not yet been briefed on the latest outcomes of negotiations. “Management will have a meeting at 15h00 to discuss the issue of student bar, amongst other things,” he told Review.
However, he did confirm that academic activities were back to normal and said that students had submitted their demands and that the university was engaging with the SRC in an attempt to address their demands.
