The Student Union of South Africa (SAUS) is expecting students and university management to be at “loggerheads” at the start of the next academic year because of mandatory vaccination policies, which could lead to violent protests, SAUS president Yandisa Ndzoyiya told a joint meeting of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the Portfolio Committee on Police on Friday.

“We’ve been saying to USAF [Universities South Africa] there must be a way to engage students on the vaccine. Of course, as the union, we want to encourage students to take the vaccine because when they save their own lives, they save other people’s lives,” he said.

“But how universities are doing it, already a number of institutions, through their councils, through their senate meetings, they have resolved on mandatory vaccines. And students, when they leave those meetings, they feel excluded because they are not thoroughly engaged. And that is going to lead to some violent protest because we are going to have a situation where students are protesting, and university management wants to proceed with registration because they don’t want to lose academic time.”

SAUS blamed student protests on a breakdown of engagement between students and university management and said they turned violent when the police got involved.

“As the union, we strongly believe that management sometimes runs away from engagements through using security services to just disengage with students. As a result, that leads to violent protests,” Ndzoyiya said.

“There is no student or student leader who enjoys being on the street. I think you know this, chair.”

-News24