Student protesters were jubilant when people arrested on Monday were released on warning after appearing in the Hillbrow Magistrates’ Court today. Photo: Ihsaan Haffejee
12 October 2016
Classes at Wits university were much fuller today than yesterday, and GroundUp witnessed no clashes between police and protesters. We have received no reports of disruptions to classes today.
Protest leaders negotiated with police to march to Hillbrow Police Station and Magistrates’ Court (which are next to each other) to support people arrested in the clashes on Monday, who were appearing in court today. Eventually a bus transported the protesters there. Protesters sang outside the court building where their arrested comrades were appearing but there was none of the tension of the past few days.
This afternoon eight students were released on a warning. They have to appear in court on 2 November.
A mass meeting of Fees Must Fall was held at Wits’s Solomon Mahlangu House late this afternoon. The meeting was ongoing at the time of publication. On the Twitter account of Wits Fees Must Fall, one of the calls being made in the meeting was for the release of protesters still under arrest.
