Angry University of South Africa (Unisa) students ran rampant through the Durban city centre on Thursday‚ stoning cars and overturning bins during a tense stand-off over fees.

A group of several hundred student moved from Unisa’s Durban campus to the city hall‚ leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Police finally caught up with the group when they arrived at the ANC’s provincial office‚ and forced them to disperse.

The defiant students broke concrete bins and hurled stones at riot police – who returned the favour with rubbers bullets‚ teargas and stun grenades.

Dissention stems from several hundred students who had not received their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) study grants for the 2018 year‚ and thus could not commence with the academic year.

The development sparked clashes between students and police‚ which saw running battles at the central Durban campus on Monday.

Earlier in the day the SRC threatened a “national shutdown” of the university should the NSFAS funding crisis remain unresolved.

Unisa’s national SRC president Zandile Sodladla said that thousands of students had not received study grants‚ preventing registration and commencement of their academic programme. Close to 80‚000 students enrol themselves annually in the correspondence institution in KZN.

Riot police remained on high alert ahead of a planned march by the students through the city on Friday.