Johannesburg - The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) on Tuesday introduced a curfew at its Soshanguve campus to ward off protesters who wanted the final examinations to be postponed.
The university said the first two days of exam sittings has been successful, despite the arrest of 16 people at its Soshanguve campus on Monday for allegedly contravening the institution’s court order.
“Security has been intensified to clamp down on any other offender. To safeguard students, staff and property, a curfew will also be instituted at the Soshanguve campuses from tonight [Tuesday], between 5pm in the evening and 5am in the morning for the duration of the examination period,” the university said on Tuesday.
“No visitors will be allowed to enter or exit the Soshanguve north and south Campuses during these times.”
In order to minimise disruptions, management moved the exam venue off the Soshanguve, Arts, Arcadia and Pretoria campuses to the Tshwane Events Centre in the CBD. It said busses were provided to transport students to and from the venue. Ga-Rankuwa campus students would sit for their exams at the Grace Bible Church.
A bus was torched in Soshanguve on Monday.
Some students at TUT demanded that the exams be postponed to next year as they did not have enough time prepare due to the ‘FeesMustFall’ protests that engulfed the country’s campuses for weeks.
The university was adamant that the 2016 academic year should be completed, and that any student who misses exams would lose the 2016 academic year completely.
Security measures at all the university campuses, including the distant campuses in eMalahleni, Mbombela and Polokwane were reinforced on Monday, with police on standby during the examination period.
Last month, the university’s council announced that there would be no tuition fee increase for the 2017 academic year, and that no student would be excluded from academic programmes because of fees owed.
African News Agency