Nhlapo lashes arsonists

CAPE Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) acting vice-chancellor Dr Chris Nhlapo said resources have been dedicated towards staff and student trauma counselling following multiple arson attacks over the past three days.

The affected areas include the staff room at Mowbray campus, a financial aid office on the Bellville campus and a lecture theatre on the Cape Town campus.

Nhlapo urged anyone who may need counselling services to contact the institution’s human capital or student counselling departments.

“I have no doubt that such co-ordinated and malicious attacks have left staff, students and their parents feeling vulnerable,” he said.

Nhlapo said the institution would maintain the services of two private security companies and criminal cases would be investigated in all the arson attacks.

“I strongly condemn these attacks on university infrastructure and I assure you that a concerted effort across a number of university units is under way to ensure that we ferret out these criminals and punish them.

“Remember that attacks like these are instigated by a small group of anarchists who have no interest in seeing CPUT or its students thrive.

“They do much more than damage our infrastructure; they also corrode the ethos of hard work and diligence that we have built up over the past 12 years,” he said.

A student activist who did not want to be named said student leaders had been suspended for placing 175 homeless students in residences, which the executive had failed to do throughout the year.

“There are never solutions to remedy the situation. The executive has then chosen to militarise the institution and spend exorbitant amounts on unsuccessful court orders.”