For the third day in a row police have had their hands full with running battles with students at the University of Venda.
The campus and outside areas have been filled with sporadic stone throwing by angry students and the firing of teargas and rubber bullets by police. Roads leading to the campus were also barricaded with burning tyres and other rubble.
The stand-off between police and students started on Tuesday and since then there has been no peace on campus with everything having come to a standstill.
The deputy president of the SRC, Mr Salman Madina, said that the whole episode came about because many students were not receiving their monthly stipends from NSFAS. He said this has been going for some time now and many of them had been left stranded.
"Some have not been receiving their stipends for books, food and accommodation from way back in February this year. It would have been better if they had been told that they did not qualify, but NSFAS gave them hope that is never bearing fruit. We met management as student leadership in trying to resolve this issue, but instead of resolving this they serve us with a letter of intent to suspend us. The worst part of it they have also closed the campus."
University spokesperson, Mr Takalani Dzaga said the students have genuine grievances and that the university is busy trying to find ways of resolving the issue. "We are also concerned. There are close to 9 000 students affected, who have not received their stipends for some time. We have met with the NSFAS people, but nothing concrete has come out of the meeting. To show our seriousness, our principal will be visiting the NSFAS offices to find a speedy solution to the problem," he said.
Dzaga further indicated they closed the campus after realizing the situation was getting out of hand. He could not indicate as to when the university would open again, but said they would assess the situation before taking any decision.
Dzaga also confirmed that letters of intention to suspend were issued to the SRC after certain procedures were not followed during the protests.