The student representative council (SRC) called for a mass meeting
outside the Great Hall on Friday morning‚ after at least four students
had to be treated for rubber-bullet wounds on Thursday.
Among them was former SRC president Shaeera Kalla‚ who claimed she
was shot up to 13 times in the back at close range and was hospitalised
overnight.
Kupe agreed that the shootings were unfortunate‚ but said they had to
be understood against a background of violent protests on the campus.
He was talking to Radio 702 on Friday morning.
"If you have a general context where there is violence‚ unfortunate
incidents and dangerous incidents will happen‚ that is why we have been
pleading with everyone to say‚ ‘Let’s remove the violent element.’
"That’s why we went to the church‚ let’s have peace‚" he said.
A peace meeting was held at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church on
Wednesday. Kupe and a Wits management delegation left the meeting after
students directed their anger at vice-chancellor Prof Adam Habib.
The disruption prompted Father Russell Pollitt from the
Society of Jesus in South Africa to say that the church’s "safe and neutral space
has been violated by those who declared God’s house to be exclusively
theirs". He said that as a result of this "Trinity is regrettably no
longer available as a venue for meeting".
Kupe said there would be no violence if there were no disruptions on campus.
"Let’s take out the causative effect: any violence by anybody is deplorable‚" he said.
"In
the context of peace and peaceful protest‚ and no violence at all‚ no
disruption of classes and teaching and learning‚ what don’t you have?
You don’t have police with rubber bullets and stun guns.
"You have only have minds engaging each other on the issues of the day."
TMG Digital
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