'You are going to k*k' - warning to non-protesting UP students

21 September 2016

Pretoria - Some students at the University of Pretoria have expressed fear about going to campus on Wednesday following the circulation of a voice note threatening violence against those who attend classes.

"There is a voice note going around from a UP student saying that any student who goes to class will be beaten up; saying how are they supposed to protest if we go to class," a student who asked to remain anonymous said.

The voice note threatens that "anyone who goes to class tomorrow, you're going to kak, we're going to beat you up".

The student said there was also a video of students trying to get into an SRC election tent and attempting to break it down.

"All the university says is that academic programmes continue as usual and extra safety measures were taken. They keep allowing students to disrupt our classes and harm our lecturers and nothing is being done about it," said the student.

The university on Tuesday released a statement saying operations would continue on Wednesday.

Lack of communication

"The university is open tomorrow (Wednesday, 21 September) and academic programmes will continue as usual. The university is redoubling its efforts to do everything it can to secure staff, students and property," read the statement.

The university has, however, postponed semester tests due to the ongoing protests.

The student said they want the institution to communicate batter on the matter.

"I think I speak for most of the students when I say that we deserve to get feedback from the university's side regarding the protests on campus. Most of the people are not going to class because we are too scared of what is going to happen and because it is traumatic being exposed to that violence," said the student.

Students said they were extremely frustrated by the disruptions.

"They say we can go to campus and then there are police vans standing around and EFFSC [Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command] members chanting around campus disrupting classes and semester tests. How are we supposed to study in such an environment? We do not know what to do anymore," said the student.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.