The University of Cape Town (UCT) has condemned the disruption of exams, and opened cases of trespassing and malicious damage to property after a group of people scattered exam material across the floor in an exam hall.
The disruption – at the hands of a group which UCT said were ‘neither employees nor students’ – appeared to be connected with a long-running dispute over campus workers and the out-sourcing of services.
A tweet by a student said yesterday: ‘Anarchy at UCT this morning! EFFSC disrupting exams, apparently over the grievances of the university’s (in-sourced) workers.’ The EFFSC is the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command.
UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola said: ‘UCT condemns these actions in the strongest possible terms. It is an infringement of the rights of students to sit for their midyear exams in a conducive environment. Campus protections services (CPS) officers are working to secure all venues on upper campus.’
UCT’s student representative council (SRC) called for the halt of all university activities, ‘pending the resolution of workers’ grievances’. The protest dates back to 2015.
‘Therefore workers have been obliged to take matters to the ground as it has been the only language management comprehends. We urge all students to have patience and stand in solidarity with our mothers and fathers to find a resolution to the issues.’
One UCT student, who had her last exam interrupted, said that shortly after students sat down and had their papers handed out, a group of protesters walked in and shouted, ‘Get out, get out … the exam is cancelled.’
She said: ‘They started scattering all the papers on the desks, told people to get out. As far as I know, they were not violent. It was verbal. Our lecturer then announced that the exam is cancelled because some people had already had a look at the exam paper. We all had to go home.’
[Image: Adrian Frith, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=849444]