Pretoria - Waking up to the terrible news that I, a TUT Soshanguve student, might not write my first paper was the worst thing ever. For a final year student who has been doing well from first year, the news was alarming to me. I’m at the point where I just want to finish with my exams, graduate, get a decent job and support my family.
I’ve spent weeks studying and just a day before my first paper, the exam hall was set alight. Though only half of it was on fire, no student could sit for exams.
I’m one with outstanding fees myself but burning the hall was totally absurd. If the hall was burnt all in the name of “we are part of the revolution” then I say they are fooling themselves and making us fools too because we all suffer.
I’m not against the revolution. What I am against is the burning of university property. Our exams being suspended at both Soshanguve campuses are affecting many of us.
Fellow students are expressing their anger on social media; their status updates say it all. Some are going as far as blaming the management for not being prudent and that all the decisions they make are not made based on what is happening at Soshanguve because they are not there. It’s as if they don’t care about Soshanguve students because they are not at those two campuses.
The management tells the media that security is tight and bouncers are vigilant at both the campuses, but how then are we not writing today? How was the hall set alight? We have students who have already missed three papers as the exams were scheduled to start last week but were suspended.
Soshanguve students are treated like they are not part of TUT.
It would only be fair that exams be suspended in all campuses not just at Soshanguve. And yes the managementdoesn'tcare aboutSoshanguve students. I find studying pointless at this moment as I’m not certain when the exams will resume and if we will even write this year.
* Rudzani Matshili is a final-year journalism student at Tshwane University of Technology’s Soshanguve campus.
** Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.