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Fort Hare centenary celebration disrupted

Centenary celebrations at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) were disrupted by hundreds of students at the Alice campus on Friday afternoon.

Deputy minister of Higher Education and Training‚ Mduduzi Manana‚ was booed as students shouted for minister Blade Nzimande to visit the university to address their issues.

Manana had tried to come to the defence of the UFH vice-chancellor Dr Mvuyo Tom‚ who was disrupted and booed for more than 30 minutes while addressing students‚ staff‚ alumni and university’s friends at the main campus.

The deputy minister tried in vain to silence the students‚ who he called “anarchists” who were going to dent the image of the institution.

Angry students would not back down and demanded that their issues be addressed. This included slow progress in the signing agreement forms to enable them to access allowances of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme.

UFH stakeholder relations and lobbying department manager Lizo Phiti described it as an “unfortunate” incident.

Meanwhile‚ institutional student representative council president Busisiwe Mashiqa alleged the DA’s Yusuf Cassim was attacked by a member of the opposition. She said he was there to talk to management to address student issues.

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