The SAPS have arrested a cleaner for breaking the windows of a police vehicle during the Fees Must Fall march on Parliament this week.

The protest‚ by approximately 2‚000 people‚ turned violent in and around the Parliamentary precinct and the Cape Town CBD. Police used stun grenades to disperse the group‚ the acting national commissioner of the South African Police Service‚ Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane said on Friday.

“Among the acts of criminality committed was an incident caught on camera of a young man breaking the windows of a police vehicle. A 33-year-old male‚ who was clearly shown in photographs which went viral on social media‚ was arrested today at his place of work in Observatory and will appear in court on Monday facing a charge of malicious damage to property. This suspect is a cleaner contracted by a university and is not a student.”

A number of other law enforcement vehicles were damaged by the unruly crowd‚ as were shop windows‚ he said.

“The police on duty during this march were clearly persistently provoked by‚ inter alia‚ having a burning mock coffin thrown into their midst and by people showing utter disrespect for the rule of law by clambering over moving and stationery police vehicles.”

Highlighting a number of other cases of arson and destruction of property linked to #FeesMustFall protests across South Africa‚ he said it is not the intention of the SAPS to securitise the institutions of higher learning or to take operational control over academic institutions.

“There are those who have bombarded us with calls to withdraw police officials from university campuses. We reiterate that it is the violence and criminal acts being committed on those campuses that have invited the presence of the SAPS.”