Wits suspends ‘disruptors’ following student protests

Wits University has suspended “disruptors who transgressed the university’s rules” during ongoing protests at the institution, it said in a statement released on Thursday night. 

“This afternoon we issued multiple suspension orders to disruptors who transgressed the university’s rules. The legal office will continue to work through the evidence submitted by the Wits community to ensure perpetrators who can be identified are charged,” the university said. 

“During the course of the suspension processes and other investigations, we found some perpetrators who were committing infractions were academically excluded. Some had failed multiple times, had lost their funding and were demanding to be registered,” it said.

Lectures at the university were disrupted by student protests this week.

Shops were forcefully shut, roads blocked and infrastructure damaged in the ensuing chaos in streets in Braamfontein. 

Protesting students were calling for an end to financial exclusion, for the cap on residence allowances from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to be scrapped and a lack of accommodation rectified.