The Student Representative Council of the University of Cape Town, says it stands in solidarity with students facing exclusions at tertiary institutions across the country.

It was reacting to Wednesday’s protests by Wits students in Braamfontein in Johannesburg during which a man was shot dead and two students wounded during clashes with the police.

UCT SRC President, Declan Dryer says no student deserves to be excluded for any reason.

“The UCT SRC has been engaging management at UCT since December on the matter of financial exclusion and we have regularly submitted proposals on the way forward last week we submitted demands on the UCT executive with a response which was unfavourable. On Thursday we will submit our final demands and meet the university management on the ground if needed.”

Meanwhile, students at Wits University in Johannesburg have vowed to continue with their protest action and their shutdown of the institution today.

Wits University SRC President, Mpendulo Mfeka says the continuation of protests has been mandated by students:

“The plan is not mine and I must make this abundantly clear. This is a plan from students and students give us a mandate and we follow that mandate. They’ve since said to us that we must continue with the protest until our demands have been met. We’re not going to stop until our demands have been met. To make it even better we have the support of other universities. They have heeded our calls to say look the state of education in our country is not in good health and it must be addressed with the energy it deserves.”

Source: SABC News