The Economic Freedom Fighters student command (EFFSC) has vowed to shut down the University of Pretoria (UP) on Thursday night.

This came after its demand that Afrikaans be scrapped from the institution as a language of instruction.

Leader Kabelo Mahlobogwane said members would ensure that the university remained shut until their demands were met.

“We are not sleeping tonight (Thursday). We are shutting down the campus as we speak,” he told Rekord.

He claimed that Afriforum Youth members assaulted some EFF students during a public meeting to discuss the language policy.

“Many were assaulted by these Afriforum members who were not even invited to the meeting. They did it in front of everyone,” he said.

Afriforum Youth national project co-ordinator Morne Mostert was not aware of the assault claims.

“We had a peaceful protest at the university and I didn’t see any assault. The EFFSC tried to shut us out of the meeting.”

Mostert said Afrikaans students were taking a stand for the language.

“As Afriforum, we have submitted a memorandum to the university as we believe in the importance of mother-tongue education. We asked the university to also include Sepedi as an academic language.”

“It seems the EFF just wants English as the main language.”

The EFFSC said it would make the university ungovernable until Afrikaans was scrapped.

University of Pretoria spokesperson Anna-Retha Bouwer said the language policy would be reviewed and a meeting would be held on Friday.

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