WATCH: TUT academic year to continue despite disruptions

“The successful completion of the academic year is of the utmost importance,” TUT management said in a statement.

“Therefore, all academic and support activities will resume at the Pretoria (West), Arcadia and Arts campuses.”

The disruptions started at the Pretoria main campus with students burning tyres at a TUT student residence last week, and spread to all the other campuses.

“The university has put measures in place to ensure that all activities can continue safely and without interruption,” it said.

The protests came after students were unhappy with having to move to reportedly unsatisfactory temporary housing while their residences were being refurbished.

“Many students residing on-campus residences do not want to move and see no point in moving,” a campus student representative council, students services and support representative, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

She said that TUT could refurbish the residences without the students having to move.

“We have to move away from Kollegehof residence in Gezina, because the building is about to collapse.”

She said however, this was not going to happen as the Madeira Isles residence had small rooms, which they needed to share.

“We don’t want to go to Madeira Isles. We want to move to a residence that can offer us single rooms and privacy that is convenient for us.

“We cannot be moved to Pretoria West (Danville) as this does not make sense.”

She cited the area as not being convenient, especially as most students residing in Gezina, were schooling at the Pretoria CBD campus.

“It does not make sense to go to Pretoria West.”

She said another issue was with the Legae student residence in the Pretoria CBD, which had recently been refurbished.

“There are only two floors which have not been renovated, which are the male floors and female floors.”

She said the capacity of the accommodation forced male and female students to share bathrooms.

“The construction started in April 2020, for the bathrooms. It was supposed to be completed and handed over to TUT in July.”

She said refurbishments were taking place at a slow rate.

“They are failing and everything is bad. We have vowed not to move so the TUT management can make sure that construction is hurried up.

“We want to monitor the progress of the construction so they can finish.”

All Resident Student Community chairperson Stephen Mthombeni said students were being forced to move to small rooms while they were comfortable where they had been staying.

“We are not going to move. Why should we move to a place where were are going to be sharing? The place they are forcing us to move to does not even meet the standard Covid-19 regulations. Even the rooms there do not meet the university’s standards in terms of sharing.”

TUT vice-chancellor and principal Lourens Van Staden said: “The extensive and much-needed renovations and upgrading of residences at a number of our campuses had commenced during the latter part of 2019.”

He said this was, however, halted due to the national Covid-19 lockdown.

Van Staden said placing the students’ safety first meant it was “not possible for anyone to stay in the affected residences or areas during construction work”.

The areas were said only to be affecting Pretoria residence students.

The affected residences are the entire Kollegehof, the entire Legae, blocks 1-4 at Orion, four blocks at Magalies and eight blocks at Lezard.

“Since these areas will not be suitable for student accommodation, temporary accommodation, at no additional cost has been secured in Pretoria West.”

He said the Madeira Isles complex could accommodate 1 000 beds, while having 24/7 security.

He said the accommodation further had WiFi and fitted kitchens with washing machines.

Van Staden said the university also planned to provide transport to campus to ensure students were not inconvenienced.

He said the students had lost too much time due to Covid-19 and could not afford to waste more time.

“We have a lot of catch-ups to do and really cannot afford to lose more time.”

He said management has been in consultation with students to resolve the matter.