It appears there were a number of fires lit last night on the Wits Braamfontein campus, with reports this morning saying that two cars and a bookshop had been set alight.

The hashtags #Witsonfire and #WitsBurning were used as the news broke, with one YouTube user uploading a number of videos to the site. These from Skhumbuzo Tuswa’s account:

Here’s TimesLive:

Security at the university has been beefed up with guards stationed at the entrances and main intersections in the university.

Spokesperson Shirona Patel was quoted by EWN as saying that the fires were started using tyres.

“There was one outside the law library, but fortunately our sprinklers extinguished that one. We had a tyre burning outside a bookshop in the student centre. Some of the books were taken out and they tried to burn those. But fortunately we got to it in time.”

Wits University have responded with a strongly worded threat to protesting students who start fires on campus:

“The university…hereby revokes its permission for any person who: blockades entrances and exits to the university; blocks lifts and stairwells; otherwise prevents the proper functioning of the university; or engages in any activity of a similar nature to enter or be present on the university’s property‚” the statement said.

It followed this with a caution all in capitals: “YOU ARE REQUIRED TO IMMEDIATELY CEASE AND DESIST FROM ENGAGING IN THE CONDUCT REFERRED TO ABOVE. IF THIS CONDUCT PERSISTS THE UNIVERSITY WILL TAKE THE NECESSARY ACTION.”

You have to feel that actions such as these serve only to discredit the peaceful, organised and constructive protests held at various campuses around the country last week.

The struggle to make tertiary education a possibility for the majority of our country is far from over, let’s just hope protesters seeking to make it a reality display greater sense than those who are torching areas of the Wits campus.

[source:timeslive]