Cape Town - UCT students had their mid-year exams disrupted by a small group, prompting the police to be called.
Video footage on social media showed the disrupters throwing the students’ scripts off their desks while they were writing in the Sports Centre, one of the university’s main exam venues.
A university official said former students who had previously been expelled from the university had taken up the cause of security guards at Groote Schuur Hospital who had been demanding that they be “in-sourced” by the university.
In an official statement released by UCT, it condemned the actions and put preventive measures in place to prevent further misdemeanours.
“On Monday, a group of individuals who were neither employees nor students of UCT disrupted exams on UCT’s upper campus. UCT condemns these actions in the strongest possible terms.
“It is an infringement on the rights of the students to sit their mid-year exams in a conducive environment. Campus Protections Services (CPS) officers are working to secure all exam venues on upper campus.
“UCT has laid charges of trespassing and malicious damage to property with the SAPS and will work closely with them. Exams that have been scheduled for the remainder of Monday, June 6 will be proceeding as planned,” said UCT spokesperson Elijah Moholola.
The UCT Students Representative Council (SRC) had requested earlier in the day that all university activities be halted pending the resolution of workers’ grievances.
It is unknown whether this request had anything to do with the disruptions that occurred during the examinations.
Hopefully someone can identify these thugs pic.twitter.com/25hbxlx3Kf
— Mark Davel (@markdavel) June 6, 2022