University of Cape Town. Photo: Supplied
The University of Cape Town (UCT) said it would no longer be resuming contact classes on Friday, as planned, after access to the campus was blocked by students, who have been protesting this week over housing issues and the barring of those still owing fees from last year from re-registering.
In a statement posted on its website, UCT said its management had been of the understanding that it would be in a position to resume face-to-face teaching and learning, and research programmes from Friday. South African schools and universities adopted an online teaching system in early 2020 in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Regrettably, this has proven not possible given the unfortunate actions of some protesting students this morning,” UCT said on Friday.
It said the UCT management had held meetings with the students’ representative council (SRC), most recently on Thursday, to discuss what had been done to deal with the fee block issues raised and that it believed “all reasonably possible measures” had been put in place to address this.
Fee blocks are a mechanism through which students in arrears with their payments are blocked from accessing their exam results from the previous year and from re-registering in the new year.
For its part, the SRC said in a statement it had repeatedly made it clear that “we require that the academic activities be halted until all students who are academically eligible have registered”.
On Friday, the SRC-led protesters blocked entrances to the university and instructed motorists to turn around. The SRC said an emergency meeting had been scheduled with management for Tuesday, 21 February.
“We urge students not to come to campus as it is still shut down and academic activities will not continue,” it said.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola told the Mail & Guardian that the executive was committed to engaging with the SRC and relevant stakeholders “to ensure the resumption of academic activities following disruptive actions on campus”.
Earlier this week, the university said it was concerned that the SRC had resorted to protesting because, during negotiations two weeks ago, the parties had reached agreement on several issues, including allowing students with an outstanding debt of between R1 000 and R10 000 to register for 2023.
The university said its cumulative student debt stood at R413 million.