Manamela blames some of the unrest at some of SA's universities on corruption, flouting of tender processes

Higher Education Minister Buti Manamela has blamed some of the unrest at some universities across the country on corruption and the alleged flouting of tender processes.

Manamela’s diagnosis of the issues currently plaguing the University of Fort Hare and the University of Free State comes amid heightened tensions at the institutions.

Fort Hare’s Alice campus was temporarily shut down last week following a violent protest over governance issues.

More than a dozen students in the Free State were also arrested at the Bloemfontein and QwaQwa campuses in protests over the university’s proposed scrapping of provisional registration, which comes into effect next year.

While Manamela said that these issues could not be downplayed, he said there was also more at play.

"Some of the violence is not even related to protests but it’s related to the fact that institutions are being seen as business enterprises, for infrastructure, for tenders around services and accommodation and so, some of this violence is related to that. So, we must make sure that universities return to what they have been established for, which is teaching and learning and not what we have seen in the recent days."