Pretoria - Students at the University of Pretoria, who are taking part in the second day of protests as part of the #FeesMustFall campaign, will have to watch their step from Thursday, as the university on Wednesday obtained a secret court order interdicting them from displaying any “disruptive” behaviour.
This interim interdict will enable the police to arrest any student who “misbehaved”.
The university obtained the order in the chambers of High Court in Pretoria Judge Peter Mabuse.
Tuks management turned to court without informing the various student bodies, named as respondents in the application, about the court proceedings. This meant that they could not defend any of the allegations at this point.
The return date for the interim interdict is November 23 - which means that the student bodies can on this date state their side of the story.
Mabuse, however, did order that the student bodies – representing the students on campus – can anticipate the return date within 72 hours.
In turning to court, Tukkies asked that nobody be informed about the pending application. It asked that the registrar of the court and its officers had to retain the court file and the matter was not to be placed on the normal urgent roll, as to be seen by others.
It was also made clear that this application had to remain under wraps until the order was issued.
The lengthy order included that the students, as represented by the various student bodies, may not take part in or instigate disruptive or riotous behaviour, they may not infringe on the rights of staff and fellow students or block the entrances to any of the campuses of the university.
They may also not disrupt activities such as exams and tests being written, as well as lectures.
The student bodies had to see to it that their members received a copy of this application via e-mail, it had to posted on the university’s website and the sheriff had to announced it at the entrance to the various campuses.
Pretoria News