Chaos as thousands queue
Desperate matrics battle for place in University of Joburg
T HOUSANDS of desperate young people gathered outside the University of Johannesburg (UJ) campus in Auckland Park early this morning, plunging the roads outside the institution into chaos.
The matriculants were trying to apply to study at UJ.
Annet Road, normally a quiet street, was packed with traffic and a kilometre-long line of students at about 7am and their cars blocked the far left and right lanes from as early as 5am.
According to UJ spokesman Herman Esterhuizen, the crowds will probably be there for the rest of the week as late applications open today and close on Friday.
Registration of those already accepted for study begins on January 23 for first-year students and the university expects similar traffic problems.
UJ is one of the few major educational institutions that allows late applications.
It was the university’s e-mail and SMS campaign last week informing potential students of this process that brought thousands to the gates this morning.
Some had camped at the Bunting Road campus gate since 1am this morning, while others arrived at 4am and were shocked to find that they were already a few hundred places down the queue.
UJ has several campuses, but late applications are done only at the Bunting Road campus in Auckland Park.
By about 5am some queuers had had enough, crowding the entrance as the disorderly group continued to grow.
Getting into the campus was crucial to those in the queue.
“The line matters inside, not here,” said one hopeful student, who pushed her way to the front of the crowd at the main gate.
As the two side gates of the Bunting Road entrance were opened at about 7.15am, screams and shouts were heard as some in the crowd shoved towards the entrance.
Kivashna Veerasamy, who had queued since 5am because she is desperate to transfer from the University of Pretoria to UJ to continue her law degree, was shocked by the chaos.
“Some people have been waiting since last night, they won’t be happy with all of the people jumping the line,” she said.
It took just five minutes for the first few hundred students to squeeze their way in, with security guards forced to open a second gate to divide the crowd as applicants were squashed up against the entrance.
However, after the initial rush, the queue came back into effect, with the remaining crowd patiently waiting to get in.
“I’m worried it will take all day, but if I get in, of course it’ll be worth it,” said Lindo Mtshali, who was still about 500m from the entrance when the gates opened.
While metro police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar said officers would be patrolling the roads around the campus over the next week, no metro officers were present as the gates were opened, leaving campus security to deal with the throng.
Minnaar said no fines would be issued to those parked on the roads outside the campus this week as long as traffic could flow.
UJ registrar Professor Marie Muller said UJ was prepared for the rush.
“UJ processed close to 85 300 applications in 2011 for studies at UJ for 2012 as opposed to 76 665 in 2010 for the 2011 intake… an increase of approximately 20 000 applications compared to the previous year (2009),” said Muller.
“UJ may enrol 48 900 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the 2012 academic year – 35 percent must be undergraduate diploma and close to 50 percent must be undergraduate degree programmes. The planned intake of undergraduate first years is 11 000 subject to the amount of returning senior students.”
She said 17 000 were already conditionally accepted for first-year undergraduate studies subject to matric results and space.
UJ registration for accepted students starts on January 23 with seniors, followed by first-year undergrad registration on January 30. Online registration is scheduled for next Monday.
From today existing applicants to UJ who want to upgrade from a diploma to a degree based on their final matric results or change their programme may do this at UJ’S AW Muller Stadium at the Bunting Road campus.
Of the nearly 500 000 candidates who wrote the matric exams nationally last year, nearly 121 000 achieved a university entrance pass.