It has been exactly two weeks since my last update. I apologize for taking so long to provide further details. I will try to briefly summarize what has occurred in the last two weeks (this is, of course, from my limited perspective of the situation). I also apologize for the length of the update.
Monday, October 3rd to Wednesday, October 5th
UCT was open during these days with lectures stopping and starting due to the disruptions. My last update provided some of the details of events on Monday.
Tuesday was better. Students again blocked the entrance roads, but the private security and police acted more decisively, arresting one student (video) and threatening to arrest the rest of the protesting students if they did not move. The students chose to stand up and move up the road to campus (video). The other entrance to campus was also cleared thus allowing access to campus by car and bus. There were further disruptions on other parts of campus, but the Physics building was spared and all lectures were delivered un-hindered.
Wednesday started out well, entrances to campus were not blocked and the first set of lectures started normally. About 30 minutes into the first lecture, a groups of protesting students tried to enter the Physics building. The doors were locked by security and the students could not get in (
video). After a while, they moved on, but a few students stayed outside. When the lectures ended, students started exiting the building and one of the remaining protestors began yelling at the exiting students. I followed her up the stairs to ask her why she was yelling at these students, but got yelled at instead (
video) and accused of assault (I had gently touched her shoulder to get her attention). Once the building was empty, she moved back across the street. The group of protesting students returned about 2 hours later and entered the building to disrupt lectures. This time they discharged fire extinguishers in two lecture venues and in the foyer. I had been in my office, prepping for my lecture and couldn't figure out why I was coughing until I opened the door to see the white powder covering everything. The building was cleared and most of the dust was cleaned up in time for me to deliver my first (and only) lecture of third-year Nuclear Physics. The lecture went fine without disruption, but about the time my lecture ended, the university decided to close once again. The protesting students continued to march through campus (
video) eventually heading for the administration building.
Thursday, October 6th to Sunday, October 16th
UCT was closed (no academic teaching activities) for this period. Many of the academics continued to come onto campus and the negotiations with the protesting groups continued. There were isolated incidents involving protesting students (burning a truck, storming campus security offices, disrupting meetings on campus). As the time wore on (and the negotiations were not proceeding), there was a decision to try and wrap up the semester and school year. Exams will start on November 7th with campus re-opening on Monday, October 17th and there will be two weeks of "teaching" (without any face-to-face meetings). We have been tasked with providing all content on-line, be in email contact with students, and teach our courses without needing to have students come into lectures (thus avoiding the possible disruptions).
Monday, October 17th
We were not really sure what to expect today. The protesting students started by disrupting the campus bus system in the morning and then slowly meandered up to the main campus. A few of us observed them peacefully walking through campus, occasionally entering buildings, singing and chanting as they went. At mid-morning, they came up to the Physics building (which was again locked) and one student tried to open the door, shaking it quite hard. Our initial thought was that the student would then stop shaking the door, but he got more and more aggressive until he was able to break part of the latch and the glass pane broke. He then reached in to unlatch the door and then opened it for the protestors to enter the building (
video). After a few minutes, the police arrived and chased the students out of the building. They were ready to move on until they realized that one of the students has been detained by the police inside the building, which led to a heated exchange (
video) and a stun grenade being sent into the crowd. Eventually, the students moved on to another part of campus and the student was taken to the police station. The students continued to move around campus, breaking into at least one other building. It is hard to know what tomorrow will bring, but these students are clearly focussed on trying to keep UCT closed.
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| Police barricading Physics building - 17 October 2016 |
Please keep praying for the universities of South Africa (the majority of the 26 public South African universities are closed, all have experienced protest action, some more severe than at UCT). To be honest with you, it is hard to know exactly how to ask you to pray. At UCT, we are at an impasse, the school year needs to be completed. The university has bent over backwards to accommodate the protesting student's requests (
link) yet the protest action remains. We seem to have entered a world where we will try to continue "teaching" in the midst of protest. I have included links to a few articles below that try to paint aspects of this very complex picture. Please read if you are interested in knowing more. Thanks for taking the time to read this, Steve
More Information
Article by student (
Dear white people: it’s time your bubble was burst)
Article about protests (
#FeesMustFall a deadly fight in a tunnel)
Article by academic (
The wrong questions are being asked in the free higher education debate)
