Durban High Court Judge Shyam Gyanda granted a final interdict against members of the students’ representative council (SRC) of the Durban University of Technology and all its students, but not before lecturing those present in court.
An interim interdict was granted in July to stop students’ unruly behaviour and disrupting of academic programmes and exams at any of the university’s campuses.
Lectures were disrupted, earlier this year, after SRC members and other students went on strike over financial aid for Bachelor of Technology and first-year students, cafeteria food and branded condoms and sanitary towels.
This interim order was made final on Friday.
A few students were present and Judge Gyanda questioned whether they were planning to oppose the order.
“We just want a right to protest freely,” said Ntuthuko Ntshangase, one of the students named as a respondent.
“You can; as long as it is 100m away from any of the five campuses,” said the judge.
“You are not entitled to disrupt other students whose parents work very hard to pay the tuition fees. That’s not right.”
Ntshangase said they want to hold meetings on the campus but Judge Gyanda said that they should seek permission from the campus to do so.
According to the vice-chancellor Professor Ahmed Bawa’s affidavit, the trouble started on all campuses on July 21 after a special student mass meeting.
He said that campus firehoses had been opened and that three lecture theatres were flooded. The… toilets on the ground floor were flooded. Numerous vehicles were… vandalised and the library was also flooded.
“In consequence of the vandalism and violence on the campuses, all campuses were immediately closed and re-opened on July 25, however the violence and vandalism continued,” he said.
After being addressed by members of the SRC, Bawa said, students went to the various campuses and disrupted lectures and trashed the campuses.
“Students who wished to attend lectures were prevented from doing so and in some instances assaulted,” he said.
Two staff members were also assaulted and again the campuses had to close.
“They are negating the right of other students to continue with and complete their academic programme for the 2011 academic year,” said the vice-chancellor. - Daily News, page 5