Nine students have been hospitalised after being wounded in politically motivated violence at the University of Zululand (Unizulu), KwaZulu-Natal's safety MEC Bheki Cele said on Wednesday."The university has become nothing else than a Gaza strip There's a long history of bloodshed there," he told a media briefing in Durban.
Students had been shot, stabbed and some were forced to jump out of windows after being confronted in their rooms.
He said the university had turned into a "war zone because of alleged political intolerance, which we believe borders on pure criminality".
The crimes, he said, had stemmed from intimidation and violence involving politically-aligned student groups.
Students had telephoned the MEC on Sunday night saying "gunshots were heard and they feared for their lives".
Cele said the situation at the campus had been going on for the past five years and that drastic action needed to be taken to resolve it.
Unizulu spokesman Dante Mashile said the violence had reached crisis levels and that debating it was not enough. He said it was time to root out the "unruly" elements and restore a safe environment.
Provincial police Commissioner Hamilton Ngidi said a special task team had been set up to deal with the matter. One part of the team would work with uniformed police officers at the institution to "stabilise" the situation. The second part would work from Durban investigating each case. No arrests had been made yet.
Cele vowed that someone would be held accountable for the crimes. He said the crimes were political but warned: "Whether it's political or not, if there's a criminal act we will pull you out of the political blanket naked and treat you as a criminal".
Source : Sapa /ma/th
Date : 01 Apr 2009 11:44
