‘Why allow you back?’

THE UNIVERSITY of Pretoria wants students facing criminal cases because of their involvement in last year’s fee protests to write motivations on why they should be allowed to re-register.

The university has instructed students to supply “a formal written request to the university indicating why such a request should be considered favourably and what undertaking you are willing to give to avoid similar incidents in 2017”.

Students have been given until Monday to make the submissions. Several students were arrested or suspended after their involvement in the #FeesMustFall protests.

The university said they were not obliged to accept the registration applications.

University spokesperson Rikus Delport said: “The university has sent letters to students who, among others, have criminal cases pending against them as a result of last year’s violent protest action.

“We have asked students to give reasons as to why their application for re-registration should be considered favourably. Students are not obliged to make any incriminating statements.”

Delport said the university had a responsibility to ensure the academic programme continued without disruption.

He said that so far, 13 500 students had already registered through the online system. At Wits University, several lecturers claim that students are not registering or are de-registering from classes in fear of #FeesMustFall reprisals.

Three lecturers who asked to remain anonymous and were from different faculties said students were afraid to come to campus.

One of the lecturers from the Humanities faculty said that in the past, by this time of year he had at least 40 students registered, but so far none had registered for his courses.

“How am I supposed to prepare?” he asked.

Another lecturer said she was concerned that those who were registering were the troublemakers.

“We’re terrified, 2017 could be a watershed moment for the university. Many of us spent the last few weeks marking the deferred papers that were written.

“With students not registering or de-registering, we can’t plan our classes or prepare because we have no idea what’s happening,” she said.

Wits university spokesperson Shirona Patel said: “The rumours are unfounded. There have been no issues at Wits since we opened on January 3, and the registration process is on track. Most students also have the option to register online.”

So far at least 16 000 students had registered.

“It is interesting to note that a majority of our students are registering online.

“This has been the trend for the past three years and is a natural progression for the current generation, who are familiar with online platforms.

“As an example, for the current year we received more than 58 000 online applications and just over 12 000 manual applications for undergraduate studies,” Patel said.

Students were given until Monday to make the submissions