A second incident of arson occurred on the Wellington campus grounds of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) during load shedding on Tuesday evening.
A tactical responder on the scene during the incident alleged students hurled stones at firefighters who responded to the fire at the Huis Murray entrance to the campus.
“Public Order Policing (POPS) arrived on the scene to control the students who allegedly committed the arson, before fire services could gain safe access in order to contain the flames,” he said.
Three students were arrested following an initial arson incident and strikes that took place on campus earlier that day.
The strike action started out as songs and marching, but allegations of more extreme behaviour were confirmed by various sources to the Paarl Post on the scene.
The first arson was reported around noon, when bushes and grass were set alight on the campus sports grounds.
Wellington Police Station commander Col Johan Barkhuizen confirmed three students were detained and will remain behind bars until they have made their appearance in court today (Thursday).
“A group of students marched through the streets to the police station in the afternoon demanding that the arrested students be released,” he related. “I explained to them this is not possible and asked them to return to campus.”
Students share experiences
At the scene PaarlPost questioned students participating in the strike.
“Today we called a march to collect other students to join as one group because of our grievances, including security issues,” one student explained. “So when we gathered as a large group, security came in large numbers. We don’t feel safe, and the university has cut ties with private ambulance services. If there are emergencies we cannot rely on government services because they take their time.”
Other students appeared impartial to the group of students participating in the strike. While some students lounging on park benches did not know much about the ongoing strike other female students expressed alarm over actions of earlier in the day as well as last Thursday.
“Many of us were too afraid to leave our dorm rooms,” a student said. “We first heard singing in the distance, which eventually came closer to our dorms.
“I also believe there was someone from our dorms who gave striking students access to the building, because some of them came banging on our dorm room doors and ordered us to come out and join the strike.
“But already we were so frightened, so why would we volunteer to join them? We left our dorms once it was safe to do so, and we saw condoms strewn along the hallways, indicating male students had entered our bathrooms.”
It was both a frightening reality and a rude awakening.
“What if a girl had been in the shower while students were provoking action?” she speculated.
“I don’t know what happened to those who had not locked their rooms, because it was a violent experience.”
These incidents are the latest action in an ongoing strike of the past two weeks coordinated by a large group of students in residence on the CPUT campus in Kollege Street.
