Cape Town – Accommodation uncertainties among hundreds of University of Western Cape (UWC) students resulted in a shutdown protest at the campus yesterday.
Disgruntled students barricaded all entrances at the Bellville
campus and exams and classes were disrupted, while the library had to be closed.
Police used a water cannon to disperse the crowd and when students retaliated, stun grenades were fired.
The students demanded to know where they would be accommodated next year as the privately owned South Point residence in Belhar will be for Cape Peninsula University of Technology students.
South Point currently is jointly used by UWC and CPUT students, but next year it will be for the exclusive use of CPUT.
This comes after the institution reached an agreement to lease the residence exclusively.
UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder said the action by students came after they received a communique informing them of the agreement.
“The situation is being monitored and classes will continue as the extent of the disruption is being looked at.
“The university wants to avoid a situation where South Point may play it off against the other institution to increase pricing.
“We don’t want a situation where the highest bidder makes private accommodation unaffordable for students.
“We have been in discussions with South Point and it is important to state that we have presented our own agreement for review and discussion. We have done this because we would like to maintain the number of bed spaces we have at the moment,” said Abarder.
He said the South Point residence, after consultations with UWC representatives, confirmed discussions were ongoing and feedback will be provided to UWC next week.
CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley said: “CPUT has reached an agreement to lease the residence in question exclusively.
"Having exclusive use residences is beneficial in terms of managing maintenance and the tremendous pressure placed on the institution at the beginning of every academic year for student housing.”