Police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets at protesters who were voicing frustration over the cost of university education at a Johannesburg university.
Details of the unrest at Wits University on Tuesday were widely shared on social media. Some protesters threw rocks as police and private security guards tried to clear the scene.
However, Twitter users — using the hashtag #feesmustfall — said that some students also offered flowers to the police, and shouted “we want peace.”
Student leader Mcebo Dlamini condemned “police brutality” but was later arrested, according to reports from witnesses at the scene.
The fees issue sparked previous violent protests in South Africa last year, when demonstrators barricaded universities and stormed the South African Parliament to press their message that university education in the country is too expensive, among other issues.
President Jacob Zuma later announced that universities would not increase fees in 2016 as planned. Students celebrated, but many posting on social media said fees remained too high and worried about what would happen after 2016.
Last month, a fresh wave of protests and unrest broke out at universities across South Africa after the government announced fees will rise next year, with an 8% cap. This university has been shut down for the past two weeks.
It reopened this week, but the senior executive team at the university said in a statement issued Tuesday that a group of students wearing balaclavas had refused to disperse at the main campus in Braamfontein and there had been an attempt to disrupt lectures.
“We have reports of two students being arrested and one student and one staff member being injured,” a further statement added.
They advised staff and students not involved in the protest to stay indoors and lock the doors.
Major General Vuyisile Ngesi, a spokesman for the South African Police Service, told CNN Tuesday: “At the moment we cannot determine the exact number of protestors but it was a considerably huge number of the student population involved.
“Police used tear gas, rubber bullets as well as stun grenades to disperse the protesters in order to prevent them from taking the protest action to the streets closest to the university.”
“The situation is calm now on campus but the police are present and monitoring the situation,” added Ngesi.