To study or not to study...

In an e-mail to students and staff yesterday, Wits' executive committee said: "If the majority of students and staff support the re-opening on Monday [yesterday], the university will call upon government and the police to meet their obligations to protect the university's property and to safeguard the lives of students and staff."

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This comes after students yesterday vowed to keep the university shut until their demands for free, quality, decolonised education were met.

Wits said it was "extremely concerned about the unfolding and growing crisis in the higher-education sector" and was calling for an urgent meeting between vice-chancellors and the ministers of higher education and training, justice and police to engage further on the matter.

The university's statement read: "We cannot lose the academic year and we appeal to the university community and wider society to make your voices heard on this key issue of national importance that impacts on our collective futures."

It also said the university had received hundreds of e-mails calling for the academic programme to resume and "believes that the voices of the majority of students and staff need to be heard".

The DA launched a petition yesterday calling for all the country's universities to be re-opened.

The party's MP Belinda Bozzoli said: "Those who want to learn should have their constitutional rights respected. "The truth is that a small group of students bent on destruction and violence are determined to keep our campuses shut. Their threats and intimidation have forced management to keep Wits, UCT [University of Cape Town] and many others closed this week, in the crucial period leading up to exams.

"It is time for those who have been silenced to speak out against the criminal capture of what is a legitimate cause and to demand that steps are taken to ensure that our universities are re-opened as soon as possible."

Protesting students have in recent days had running battles with campus security and police.

In the process, several buildings, including a law library, student residence, a coffee shop, a security office and cars were set alight with damages running into millions of rands. Damages to university property in last year's protests amounted to more than R300-million.

But protests are unlikely to end soon.

Former Wits SRC president, Mcebo Dlamini, yesterday called on other universities to continue with the total shutdown, while also calling on institutions such as the University of Johannesburg and Unisa, who haven't officially announced a shutdown, to do so.

In Pretoria, EFF national student command president Mpho Morolane yesterday led students from Tshwane University of Technology and Unisa through the city streets, also calling for closure of colleges.

Morolane said: "This country will come to a standstill until fees have fallen. As we leave here today [yesterday], you are going to declare that this university [Tshwane University of Technology] has been shut down until further notice."

Last week Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande was expected to respond to the wave of national protest sweeping universities by announcing fee increases for next year.

But the minister shifted the responsibility back to the tertiary institutions saying any increase should be capped at 8%.

None of the universities have announced their increases yet.

Source: The Times