Students still camped outside
DESPITE the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) communiqué sent last week by the management that “all teaching activities were suspended until yesterday”, the students at the Athlone campus were still camping outside the buildings in the hope of meeting management.
CPUT student representative council chairperson at the campus Thobile Tshefu confirmed there were no classes yesterday. He said the Student Representative Council did not lobby anyone to camp outside, “but people saw fit” for them to camp outside the buildings “in solidarity with the arrested students who will appear before court next week”.
Tshefu said management had finally agreed to meet the student representatives.
The protest, which started two weeks ago, was for safer housing, transport to and from the Bellville campus and for water in the student residences. The protest resulted in the arrest of 21 students for public violence.
Yesterday, the Bellville campus student centre and parts of the administration building were closed after they were flooded on Friday. The flooding is suspected to have been deliberate. The flooding came after two bus shuttles were torched and the administrative building stoned during overnight protests last Tuesday.
Western Cape Land Party convener Vannessa Adriaanse said she noted the clashes between students and police last week and decided to visit the campus for assessments.
Adriaanse said that when she and other party members arrived at the Athlone campus: “We listened to the students’ grievances and assessed their residences. It is indeed a terrible situation.”
Meanwhile, CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said the weekend passed with no incidents and all campuses were operational. She said good progress was being made in refurbishing areas of the university that were affected by sabotage last week.
“All broken windows at the Bellville administration building were replaced and common areas of the student centre are operational.”
She said deep cleaning was continuing in some of the offices affected by last week’s flooding, and staff had been temporarily relocated.