Cape Town - Mid-year examinations at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) continued on Tuesday with security guards securing the entrances following disruptions at its venues on Monday.
UWC spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said additional security was brought in to ensure that exams continued uninterrupted after protesting students set off fire extinguishers at two of its exam sites during protests.
He said no formal complaints or letters of grievances giving reasons for the disruptions were submitted to the university.
However, the UWC Fees Will Fall Facebook group called for a boycotting of exams until "burning issues" are dealt with. These included the dismissal of 144 outsourced workers, rape culture, the centralisation of the financial aid scheme and a residence crisis.
"Due to arrogance and the bad-faith nature of the executive management during the process of finding solutions pertaining to the above issues, there have been no concrete resolutions.
Instead, the management has been playing hide and seek tactics resulting to time being delayed [sic]," it said.
"We call for the students and the workers to be united in this clarion call of not allowing exams to continue until the management responds properly to these grievances.”
The university's executive management on Monday condemned the disruption, saying that the exams would continue as scheduled and "appropriate measures" would be taken to ensure continuity.
"To ensure the health and safety of our students writing examinations, extra security measures will be put in place. Please be assured that any attempts at disrupting examinations will be addressed decisively," it said in a statement.
"As always, we remain committed to engaging with all of our students in a constructive and respectful manner - and we echo the plea expressed by the SRC in an earlier communication to seek to 'find an amicable solution without any disruption of the examinations whatsoever'."
Tyhalibongo said management was “disappointed” at students’ attempts to disrupt mid-year proceedings.
"People have the right to protest, but have to acknowledge others' right to study and write exams," he said.
News24
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/security-guards-deployed-to-uwc-exam-venues-20170620
UWC spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said additional security was brought in to ensure that exams continued uninterrupted after protesting students set off fire extinguishers at two of its exam sites during protests.
He said no formal complaints or letters of grievances giving reasons for the disruptions were submitted to the university.
However, the UWC Fees Will Fall Facebook group called for a boycotting of exams until "burning issues" are dealt with. These included the dismissal of 144 outsourced workers, rape culture, the centralisation of the financial aid scheme and a residence crisis.
"Due to arrogance and the bad-faith nature of the executive management during the process of finding solutions pertaining to the above issues, there have been no concrete resolutions.
Instead, the management has been playing hide and seek tactics resulting to time being delayed [sic]," it said.
"We call for the students and the workers to be united in this clarion call of not allowing exams to continue until the management responds properly to these grievances.”
The university's executive management on Monday condemned the disruption, saying that the exams would continue as scheduled and "appropriate measures" would be taken to ensure continuity.
"To ensure the health and safety of our students writing examinations, extra security measures will be put in place. Please be assured that any attempts at disrupting examinations will be addressed decisively," it said in a statement.
"As always, we remain committed to engaging with all of our students in a constructive and respectful manner - and we echo the plea expressed by the SRC in an earlier communication to seek to 'find an amicable solution without any disruption of the examinations whatsoever'."
Tyhalibongo said management was “disappointed” at students’ attempts to disrupt mid-year proceedings.
"People have the right to protest, but have to acknowledge others' right to study and write exams," he said.
News24
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/security-guards-deployed-to-uwc-exam-venues-20170620