afrol News, 5 March - South African police have arrested 28 people at the University of Free State (UFS) during a protest against the shooting of a racist video.

The nabbed protesters have been accused of intimidating lecturers and students at the university where security has since been beefed up principally to avert the already tense situation. Some protesters manhandling a white lecturer.

Suspects will appear in court on Wednesday.

Last week, angry protests were held against a video that portrayed white university students forcing four black female employees to eat food they [whites] urinated on.

Four students of Reitz men's residence in USF campus - Johnny Robert, Roelof Malherbe, Schalk van der Merwe and Danie Grobler - were accused of shooting a video in September, featuring black cleaners kneeling down eating the fouled food.

Observers believed that the action was a revolt against an integration policy that seeks to heal the wounds of racial discrimination under apartheid South Africa. Since apartheid days, USF has been dominated by white students.

South Africa's Human Rights Commission is digging into the root causes of racism in the
university whose authorities did not only condemn the racial bombshell, but also went ahead to penalise the two final year students suspects.

The four women victims recounted their ordeal to press, expressing bitterness for being betrayed by the students for portraying a completely different version of the film they [cleaners] saw last year.

"We trust these children, but that trust was completely broken," embittered cleaners said.

Lawyer Lesley Mokgoro, who held brief for the cleaners, said his clients had been fooled to believe that the video was meant for a competition. They were surprised that recent film was completely different from what they saw last year.

"What happened is still very fresh and still very hurtful. It is, therefore, difficult for the cleaners to answer all the questions comprehensively," said Mokgoro.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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