Today was a long day. It started with a 3-hour standoff between students blocking the entrances to campus (for vehicles, not pedestrians). This was followed by roving bands of protestors entering lecture venues to disrupt whatever teaching was going on. The Physics building seemed to be a popular target with a total of five disruptions throughout the day. We got quite good at leaving the building when the fire alarm was pulled, waiting for the protestors to clear the building and move on to the next building before having the students return to the venue and restart the lecture. I was not teaching today, but was supporting many of the other lecturers. I have uploaded some short cell phone videos to YouTube (links below) if you would like to get a glimpse of what is going on. You will see that singing and dancing is a big part of the protest.
Thankfully, there does not appear to have been any instances of violence, just a lot of disruptions, although six students were arrested for disrupting one particular lecture. Unfortunately, the protests will continue tomorrow and the university has decided to increase the level of security on campus. This means that there will be more confrontations between protestors and police, and also likely more arrests. Again, it is hard to predict exactly what tomorrow will bring, but it will probably get ugly. Please keep praying, Steve
More Information
Article on UCT Protest
Videos I took today
Blocking road to campus this morning
Lecture disruption in the morning
Disrupting tutorial in the afternoon
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