DUT vice-chancellor Professor Thandwa Mthembu, at a media briefing. Nqobile Mbonambi African News Agency (ANA) DUT vice-chancellor Professor Thandwa Mthembu, at a media briefing. Nqobile Mbonambi African News Agency (ANA)
Durban - The Durban University of Technology intends using educational workshops in an effort to promote peace following violent student protests which have plagued the university.
DUT Steve Biko campus has been closed since the beginning of the month when students protested over funding and accommodation.
Two weeks ago Mlungisi Madonsela, a 20-year-old student, was shot and killed and Mbali Ntoza, a DUT employee, was seriously injured during violent protests.
Speaking at a press briefing on Friday, the vice-chancellor, Professor Thandwa Mthembu, said he requested the intervention of the International Centre on Non-violence (Icon) to work with students and staff to prevent further violence.
“I think the biggest problem we are facing and not only at DUT, but in the country, is violence and we need to deal with it. I have already challenged Icon to help us with education and workshops on how we could exercise our rights to protest but without violence,” he said.
The vice-chancellor said the university would resume its academic program tomorrow, after the management and the student representative council agreed that students still awaiting appeal decisions from NSFAS should be allowed to attend classes until their cases were finalised and allocated to residences.
Icon director Crispin Hemson said the organisation wanted to create an environment where conflicts were resolved through discussions without harm.
“We wish to play a direct role in changing relationships at the university that are based on mistrust and hostility. We understand that our universities are not immune to violence; they are part of a violent society and have a responsibility not to reproduce that violence within their institutions. Disrupting these cycles of violence, is in our view, a core task of the university and is not peripheral to the processes of teaching and learning,” he said.
DUT SRC president Sesiyanda Godlimpi confirmed that an agreement had been reached with the university regarding the students’ demands.
“There’s progress made by the university to meet our demands. We noted there are buildings which will be leased as external residences to accommodate more students and new beds have been bought. It is for this reason we have agreed for academic programmes to resume while other matters are being attended to,” he said.
One the topic of educating students on non-violent ways to protest, Godlimpi said students were not the instigators.
“It’s the security guards that become violent towards the students by spraying them with teargas and rubber bullets and this leads to students reacting in defence and out of anger,” said Godlimpi.
Mangosuthu University of Technology would remain closed following violent protests.
This week students were granted an interim interdict preventing the university from evicting students from residences. The University of KwaZulu-Natal resumed lectures this week.
