Stop acts of violence, premier tells UFS protesters

Students at the University of Free State should return to classes and stop acts of violence with immediate effect, Free State Premier Ace Magashule said this week.

He called on students and management to avoid confrontations, provocations and acts of violence following days of disruptions.

"We remain committed to our objective to ensure that education, as one of our key priorities, is used as a primary tool to transform the socio-economic realities of our country," Magashule said.

"We urge all parties to ensure that racism is not used as a tool to divide our people and distract us from the noble goal of achieving a united, prosperous, non-racist and non-sexist South Africa."

He added that the goal of transformation of higher education was part of the broader goal of transformation of society in general.

Security doubled

On Monday morning, security was doubled at the university as classes resumed after a week of protests.

SRC president Lindokuhle Ntuli said students would not disrupt any classes as they found no pleasure in causing the institution any harm.

Last Monday, a group of protesters, who wanted to highlight the plight of outsourced workers, disrupted a Varsity Cup rugby match at the Shimla Park Stadium.

Spectators ran onto the field and attacked them, causing chaos and the forced closure of the university for the duration of last week.

The following morning, EFF protesters vandalised and pulled down a statue of Charles Robberts (CR) Swart on campus.

Swart was the last governor general of the Union of South Africa, a position he held until 1961 when the country became a sovereign republic. He then served as president of the Republic of South Africa from 1961 to 1967.