A small group of female University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) students have gathered at the Westville campus, pleading for the release of their arrested peers.

About 100 students held up placards while singing and chanting that they wanted free education.

UKZN student Londiwe Makhanya said the reason only female students had gathered was because when male students joined protests, police tended to become violent.

“We are just having a peaceful march to show solidarity with our UKZN Pietermaritzburg females and males who were arrested and denied bail last week until December 2, while the academic programme continues.”

Makhanya said management was proceeding as though nothing was wrong.

“Nothing is right, campus is ungovernable right now,” said Makhanya.

While the young women were protesting, a student leader informed them that they needed to sign a permission slip to allow them to march peacefully.

Westville SRC member Bongekile Ngobese said the gathering was currently considered illegal and that they were still trying to secure permission from management to conduct a peaceful march from the quad area to the risk management services area.

“We want all the students that were arrested to be released in Pietermaritzburg. We also want the charges to be dropped. We are still fighting for free education for the poor and internal issues that we have been fighting for since August,” she said.

A student leader returned later and informed the students that their application was late and that they could only secure permission for Wednesday.