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There had been a call for students not to register in
protest to the unfair and inhibiting policy change. The student government
had been trying to negotiate with the administration, but had not been
getting anywhere. There were dissenters among the students who registered,
mostly first years, foreign students who already had their fees paid for,
us exchange students who were pretty much kept in the dark by the school's
PR department, and others who just decided to go ahead and register. We
had been hearing about toyi-toyis, which is the name for strikes here
by the students.
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| In the past it was a means of protesting against the school, often with violent consequences during the times of apartheid. In the past students would burn tires, occupy the administration building, and hold protests with placards and singing and dancing. At times the police would come in and beat students, tear gas was common and rubber bullets also were fired at students to get them to disburse. Nowadays toyi-toyis consisted of students singing, dancing and carrying placards. |
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We had been hearing that students were going to toyi-toyi about the new policies, and the exchange students were called into a meeting with the Dean to let us know not to worry and that everything would be safe. On Wednesday, I walked from my room to find large army personnel carriers parked around the campus with armed policemen sitting around. It was something unlike I had ever seen before. The personnel carriers were large tank looking vehicles with large rubber tires instead of tracks, small windows with holes for shooting out of, straight up war machines, parked on campus with uniformed policemen spilling out of them, sitting in the morning sun. I warily took a few pictures. |
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I heard that later in the day, the police had raided the campus searching for unregistered students who were on campus grounds. They would enter rooms and stop students and if you lacked proof of registration, you were sent to jail. About 200 students were taken to jail. Many students had been writing (a.k.a. taking or completing) makeup final exams from this past semester (you are allowed to come back to write your exams if you failed but were within 5% of passing). Most of these students just found a room and crashed there while they got in the last few days of studying. Other students had been on campus, and had managed to get by the security measures. The only way to get on campus was to go by the security gate in front and present ID to the guards. All other exits besides the main gate were closed. The campus is also surrounded by chain link fence and razor wire. Another little quirk is that your trunk is checked every time a car leaves to ensure nothing is being stolen. Not quite like the states, eh? |
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