DURBAN - DURBAN University of Technology Vice-Chancellor, Professor Thandwa Mthembu, has condemned the act of violence that played out at the university's Berea campus earlier today.
Commenting on the video clips that circulated on social media, Mthembu said he has communicated – repeatedly – that a university is a place of calm and peace, facts and evidence, reason and logic and deliberation.
He said it was very unbecoming of a university student to recoil into the most primitive ways of settling disagreements; fisticuffs, sjamboking, hurling of bricks and stones.
"Management has no option but to take very drastic disciplinary measures against all of those who will be identifiable and/or reported to have been involved in this brawl. Simply, their behaviour does not belong in a university. Worst of all, the gatherings that led to the brawl consisted of people who were not wearing their masks and keeping their physical distance. Whilst this behaviour constitutes a flagrant violation of Covid-19 related legislation, it also poses a great risk of DUT becoming a super-spreader of Covid-19," he said.
Mthembu urged students to refrain from taking part in "despicable and errant behaviour".
"Management, and I should think, law enforcement agencies, are clearly being forced to consider all means – legal and otherwise – to stop this degeneration of the university into a cauldron of mayhem. More pronouncements will be made to nip these dastardly deeds in the bud," he said.
According to Sasco’s Malwande Ndobe, EFF students attacked Sasco members who were running their annual right to learn programme which helps first-year students.
He said a disabled member had broken his arm in the fight and was rushed to hospital in a critical condition.
Police confirmed that five students were stabbed in an altercation at the campus.
IOL