Rhodes operational despite protest

A large contingent of public order and other police moved onto Rhodes campus yesterday after protesters invaded residences, set off fire-alarms, erected barricades across access roads and started several fires on campus overnight.

The barricades burnt fiercely in the early morning light until the Grahamstown Fire Department, under protection of police, arrived to put them out.

Medical waste, including used syringes, was strewn across the corner of Prince Alfred and Somerset streets. Protesters also hijacked a parked contractors’ trailer filled with paint and thinners and turned it on its side to form a barricade across the road.

Attempts to set it alight failed.

No significant damage was caused to university property and police said no one had been arrested.

Rhodes strongly condemned the invasion of student residences, the barricading of campus and “the malicious and hazardous use of medical waste to form barricades”.

It warned that investigations were under way to identify the perpetrators, as well as the source of the medical waste.

The undertaking to bring perpetrators to justice is in direct conflict with a student demand of a blanket amnesty for all students who participate in the protest and is likely to prolong the negotiation stalemate.

Students are also demanding police get off the campus and that management shut down the academic programme.

Rhodes said that despite some disruptions, classes had continued for most of yesterday.

Meanwhile in Alice, a number of students at the University of Fort Hare remained in their residences yesterday waiting to be evicted after an interim order by the Bhisho High Court while others packed and left the buildings.

The Bhisho High Court granted the university permission to evict students on condition that it finds alternative accommodation for them.

The university has issued a form to students saying they should motivate why they should not be evicted from the residences.