Students breach non-violence agreement
An agreement reached between the SRC and DUT was broken this week when protesting students turned violent and intimidated students and staff.
ABOUT 500 students marched from the ML Sultan Campus to the Steve Biko Campus of Durban University of Technology (DUT) on 24 February and 25 February, where some classes were disrupted and students and staff were intimidated by protestors.
There was also some damage to property as protesting students threw garbage in the street and set it on fire.
According to Prof Ahmed Bawa, vice-chancellor and principal at DUT, the SRC had broken the agreement reached with the university on 5 February. “That agreement brought an end to the previous strike action and in the agreement, the SRC committed itself, in writing, to ensure that there would be no violence or intimidation on campus once the academic calendar resumed. The university received no prior notification from the SRC with regard to this latest protest,” he said.
“The university received a list of concerns from the SRC relating primarily to financial aid issues for returning students. The SRC gave DUT a list of 400 students and we have recognised 200 students from that list as having genuine issues. Some of them qualify for financial aid but they have been unsuccessful in getting into the academic programmes. Given the fact that the SRC has clearly renegaded on its agreement with the University, DUT will now be dealing with these 200 students directly,” said Prof Bawa.
He said public order policing would be supporting the university during this challenging time.
