UKZN Professor assaulted during violent student protests
A Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal was assaulted yesterday during student protests on it's Westville campus the institution has confirmed.
The incident was captured on video and has been doing the rounds on social media.
Management says they are currently viewing video footage to try and identify the perpetrator. It says it will officially release a statement soon.
Following ongoing student protests, the UKZN has given assurance that the academic programme has been unaffected.
Yesterday student unrest intensified with another round of violence, damage to property and barricading of entrances at the Westville campus.
READ: Protests flare up again at UKZN
In a statement sent to Newswatch, UKZN says learning is taking as per schedule on all its campuses.
However students say there has been instances of lectures being disrupted.
Listen below:
Some students feel a hurdle has been placed between them and their future by the institution's requirement that they pay 15% of their historic academic debt before being allowed to register.
They're saying it's a crippling form of exclusion as many of them come from financially burdened families.
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One final year student with an academic debt of close to R100 000 says he doesn't know how he will realise his dream of becoming an optometrist.
"If I had funding and however now these outstanding fees accumulated, and now you want me to pay 15% of that, where do you expect me to get it? Why did I get funding in the first place?"
"And, another thing that they are doing, let's say your degree is five years, for example, you'd stay here for two extra years so that they can kick you out of res. So we have people who are doing their exit modules or final year like myself, that are currently [being] kicked out of res."
