Praag, February 24, 2016

White students from the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein had to vacate their residences on Tuesday for fear of more black assaults.

Black rioters, mostly cleaners who demand full employment, attacked the white minority, and damaged the main building and residences in the chaos that erupted on campus as a result of vice-chancellor Jonathan Jansen’s lack of leadership [Editor’s Note: Prof. Jansen is black].

On Monday Jansen fled when the black rioters interrupted a rugby match. In a statement he blamed white students who tried to protect themselves from the ensuing violence.

Black youths later pulled down a statue of South Africa’s first republican president, CR Swart, and dumped it into a fountain.

The black SRC president of the university, Lindokuhle Ntuli, said they would continue their protest action until their demands were met.

He explained the attack on whites by saying they had no place in the institution and that something had to done about “racists”.

Ntuli pointed to the CR Swart statue as proof of racism and said protests would only be ended if cleaners were given permanent, full-time employment contracts. He could offer no other examples of racism.

The university announced the Bloemfontein campus will remain closed until further notice because the safety of students, staff and property could not be guaranteed.

Some 60 additional security guards were deployed on the campus to stop the ongoing vandalism.

Jansen said on Tuesday at a news conference that the violence was a setback for transformation. He expressed his disappointment that the black protestors’ “rights were trampled”.

According to the vice-chancellor, blacks have “rights” that enable them to attack whites and damage property.

At the Fischer residence blacks attacked white students on Monday and stormed the building again on Tuesday.

The police had to escort terrified white female students from the Madelief residence to safety when blacks stormed the place shouting that “all the white man’s children will be killed!”

The police were then pelted with stones and bottles and accused of protecting only white students.