Pretoria - Higher Education, Science, and Technology Minister Blade Nzimande has expressed sadness and offered heartfelt condolences to the family, friends, and fellow students of Durban University of Technology student Sandile Ndlovu, who died of his wounds in hospital in Durban on Saturday.
The first year Industrial engineering student was attacked in a lecture hall of the Steve Biko Campus of the university on September 16. He died in an intensive care unit where he was on life support due to extensive brain damage sustained during the attack.
“I urge our criminal justice system to ensure a speedy arrest and prosecution of the people responsible for Sandile’s death,” Nzimande said on Sunday.
The Ndlovu family "and the entire nation has lost an engineer in the making who could have been instrumental in addressing challenges in our economy, particularly those that might have been brought by the advent of the fourth industrial revolution", Nzimande said in a statement.
“An Industrial engineer, which Sandile was to be, finds answers to many important problems in manufacturing, distribution of goods and services, health care, utilities, transportation, entertainment, and the environment. Indeed, we have lost a young person who was going to play a significant role in moving our country forward,” he said.
Nzimande welcomed the suspension of the head of security at the university who had the responsibility to ensure that there were proper security measures in place, including the installation and monitoring of video cameras that could have been significant in the arrest of the murderers.
“Our institutions are a place of teaching and learning and not places to breed criminals and lawlessness. I therefore expect the university management to safeguard the lives of everyone on campus including the university property.”
Nzimande had directed the Durban University of Technology council to ensure that the university management gave the Ndlovu family the necessary care and support during this time of bereavement.