I think it’s fair to say the #FeesMustFall movement has lost its way a little over the past week or so, the heightened aggression shown across campuses nationwide damaging the credibility of those seeking actual, meaningful change.

We covered that yesterday HERE, renowned political analyst Justice Malala putting it far more eloquently than anything we could manage.

Next up is a statement issued yesterday by Universities South Africa (USAf), who fear that the escalating violence is going to jeopardise the very future of the institutions going forward.

Here’s BusinessTech with that statement:

“There is growing anxiety that the academic project of 2016 is in serious jeopardy. While we are committed to the idea that students have every right to engage in protests and activism in their quest for fee-free higher education, we are also increasingly despairing of the nature of these protests.

“Damage sustained by the university sector in the last year due to student protests is estimated to have now exceeded the R600 million mark,” it said.

You read right – R600 million and counting.

That is a doubling in damage costs since April, when the Department of Higher Education and Training released the last figures to be made public.

April’s announcement also saw a breakdown of damages that had been incurred on each campus:

Blade Nzimande spoke earlier at the Department of Higher Education’s headquarters about the damages, with this from TimesLive:

He reiterated his conviction that there was a political element behind the protests‚ saying the he could not understand how a majority of students could be held at ransom and misled by a minority of students.

The minister said people who continue to protest and destroy property in the name of poor were lying‚ as destruction of something already built pointed to something else.

Nzimande blamed the protests on what he said were ultra-left formations and singled out the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) as amongst those behind the protest.

“This is an anti-ANC government agenda by those who cannot win power through the ballot…there is no reason to be protesting‚” he said.

In case you haven’t seen any of what’s going on today, here’s a video shot earlier at the Durban University of Technology (DUT):

An idea of the tension on campus from a second TimesLive article:

“If [private security company] Mi7 decides to militarise this campus‚ we will moer them‚” said Bonginkhosi Khanyile‚ an Economic Freedom Fighters-aligned student leader.

While addressing students outside the Berea Res on the campus‚ he added that the students would also take action if police “operated with apartheid tactics”.

He also criticised media for portraying the protests and the students as violent.

An Mi7 guard overseeing the group was overhead saying: “I know I could moer 10 of them one time‚ that’s what I know.”\

I’ll end with IOL:

UKZN spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said excrement was thrown in the commerce building and subsequently a test and lecture were disrupted.

He said disciplinary action would be taken against those involved.

A lecturer, who asked to remain anonymous, said the students and all present in the venue were disgusted by the act.

“They carried the poo in plastic bags and threw it on the floor. It was also smeared on parts of the walls and on computers. It was quite disgusting,” said the lecturer.

The battle rages on.

[sources:businesstech&timeslive&iol]