Businesses have shut down in and around Braamfontein, Joburg following a protest by Wits University students on Thursday.
The students are demanding financial inclusion and enough funds for accommodation, and to be allowed to register for the 2023 academic year while NSFAS is still trying to clear their historical debt with the university.
Traffic was disrupted in Braamfontein, Auckland Park and Parktown as the students embarked on a second day of demonstrations and this affected Empire and Jan Smuts; those roads were barricaded with burning objects and plastics.
After much shoving and pushing, the police and the JMPD officers were able to stop them without using any violent methods.
The students regrouped in bigger numbers and went around chasing students out of businesses, lecture halls, shops, fast food outlets, bars and restaurants.
Wits University Sasco Chairperson Tshepo Manci-Kapah said their aim is to render the institution and businesses ungovernable, until their demands have been met.
“We have big businesses here, we have Debonairs, Chicken, KFC. Ask them what have they been doing for the students? The answer is nothing, all they know is to take money from students and they are not giving back to students if that is the case we rather render Braamfontein ungovernable.
“As it stands students are frustrated. No one is going to operate, the institution is not going to operate. We declared this university ungovernable,” he said.
The Wits University SRC Twitter page claimed that all classes were suspended but most students said they were able to attend their classes.
Meanwhile, University of Johannesburg Kingsway students said they were in support of the protesters. A Masters student studying Infrastructure Development, Phyllis Msibi said she sympathised with the Wits students who would run out of food and left with nothing to eat.
“Being a student is not easy if NSFAS gives us funds that are less than what we require to affect how we study and things we should be doing on a day-to-day basis. Students end up doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
“Because now they don’t have food and transportation money so I support this protest because it speaks to what young people are going through,” she said, adding that the government should be aware they need to invest more in education.
Another student who refused to give her name said: “I understand why students are protesting, when we have issues, they don’t reply. We send emails all the time. And when we go to the NSFAS office on campus they say we must wait for NSFAS to reply.”
