Police officers are not security guards and should ideally keep away from campuses and tertiary institutions where students are protesting‚ says the police oversight committee.

The police portfolio committee’s chairperson Francois Buekman made the remarks on Wednesday as police fired rubber bullets at a peaceful gathering of students a the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth.

Reports of police using undue force were also reported on campuses at the University of Cape Town and other campuses.

“I just want to make a few comments about recent events on the campuses of the country in the last few days. I think we all have seen the protests around the country and I think it’s critical all roleplayers at all times adhere to legal requirements and the law‚” said Beukman.

“I think it’s incumbent on all the roleplayers‚ the vice-chancellors‚ the student leadership to ensure that the atmosphere that is create is conducive for democratic debate.”

He said it was also quite important from a police perspective that “police intervention only done when really required”.

“We don’t think the police should play the role of campus police or private security. So it’s quite important in terms of command and control‚” said Beukman.

His comments followed those of the office of the African National Congress chief whip‚ which strongly condemned the “use of brutal police force” to clampdown on students who are protesting against rising tuition fees.

“We are shocked and disappointed that students at these two universities have been arrested and met with brute police force for legitimately raising matters that have a serious impact on their future‚ as others have done in other provinces such as Gauteng and the Eastern Cape‚” said the party in a statement.

It said in other provinces‚ such as at the University of Witwatersrand in Gauteng and Rhodes University in Grahamstown‚ no police had been deployed against students.