North-West University (NWU) has obtained a final order interdicting students at its Vaal campus from embarking on disruptive protests, says a TimesLIVE report. It had obtained a temporary interdict at the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) on 22 September‚ a day after students protested for free education. Judge DS Fourie made the order final yesterday‚ as the 14 cited members of the student representative council (SRC) did not file papers opposing management's application.

Lesego More‚ president of the university's central SRC‚ said they could not challenge the application because they had no money for lawyers. More denied the students' protest was violent. He said they only sang and burnt a tyre outside the campus. In management's founding affidavit‚ the Vaal campus acting rector Linda Alida du Plessis maintained the protest was disruptive. Du Plessis said in the papers they now sought to avert violence on campus.

Full TimesLIVE report

Meanwhile, five Rhodes University students arrested on Monday were released on warning yesterday after a brief appearance in the Grahamstown Magistrate’s Court. A Daily Dispatch report says the five – two men and three women – were arrested by riot police after toilets were vandalised and lectures disrupted on campus during a standoff with those wanting lectures to continue. After hours of ‘monitoring’ the intimidation students, warning them to disperse and not to destroy property or intimidate students and staff wanting to attend lectures, police moved in and arrested the five. Magistrate Ntsoki Moni said they would be released on warning after spending a night in prison. No conditions were attached to their release and they were ordered to appear again on 30 November.

Full Daily Dispatch report (subscription needed)