Cape Town - University exams started in Cape Town on Monday shortly after protesting students set tyres alight at a main entrance to UCT.
At the University of the Western Cape (UWC) students had to show security staff their student cards before they could enter the campus through specially erected fences.
This follows weeks of protests by students for zero fee increases next year and outsourced university workers lobbying to be insourced.
On Monday morning tyres were set alight at one of the entrances to UCT and billowing smoke filled an entrance tunnel, causing some students to look for other ways to enter the university grounds. Firefighters soon arrived and doused the area.
On Sunday UCT’s vice-chancellor Max Price said university management had put together a plan to secure the exams and to deal with any disruptions to campus or to exams.
“Students and workers who attempt to disrupt exams will be identified. Appropriate, fair and speedy disciplinary processes will follow, which may lead to expulsion of students and dismissal of workers.”
He said a student who is expelled will not be allowed back next year, and a worker who is dismissed will not be insourced. Some students had objected to “the possibility of expulsion”.
“Due process will be followed. But the fact of the matter is that there are about 17 000 students who have elected to write exams now rather than early next year. For many of them, these exams will be decisive in their degrees,” Price said.
At UWC, spokesman Luthando Tyhalibongo said fencing had been added around examination venues to protect students who were writing from being disturbed by protesters.’
