University of Limpopo management is investigating a former student leader after three students and a lecturer were stabbed on campus on Saturday night.

The four were allegedly ambushed by four men who drew knives and stabbed them, apparently without provocation.

University registrar Prof Kwena Masha said the students and the lecturer sustained multiple stab wounds in their upper bodies.

"We can confirm that the [victims] are student representative members of the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command and one is [a] junior lecturer. We are now looking for our former student leader who we suspect is a chief suspect because he was caught on camera entering the university's gate," Masha said.

Masha added that their preliminary investigation have revealed that the former student leader entered the campus around 8pm and left immediately after the incident.

"We are looking for him and his accomplices because our investigations point to him. The other suspects are not known..."

A student who asked not to be named, said he and other students were told to leave the library by the SRC on Saturday night.

"They told us that we are not safe and that anyone wearing an EFF T-shirt should remove it because there were people targeting them. I had to leave [and stop] preparing for my exam and locked myself in the room," said the student.

Masha said the motive was political intolerance from those who lost election this month.

"There have been a build-up of incidents where members of Sasco disrupted SRC programmes. However, we didn't expect a situation like this to happen because this is pure criminality," he said.

SRC president Nicodemus Modjela said as student leaders they were now living in fear following a series of threats.

"We had to rescue one of our own after a group of thugs were found smashing his room's window. They smashed the entire glass while he was asleep. He has been taken to a secret place," Modjela said.

He also confirmed that the former student leader and his friends had been refusing to accept EFF leadership on campus.

Brig Motlafela Mojapelo said police have opened a case of assault after a 21-year-old student was stabbed with a sharp object. He said other cases were yet to be reported. "The suspect has not yet been arrested," he said.