CLASSES at Durban University of Technology (DUT) will commence on Monday, 25 February.
At a media conference held on Friday morning, DUT principal Prof Mthembu, announced that agreement had been reached with the SRC to resume the academic programme following three weeks of violent protests and disruptions during which one student was tragically shot and killed and a staff member seriously injured.
Prof Mthembu said that while classes had been suspended during the student protests and subsequent negotiations between the SRC and university management, the university had remained operational.
He said with the help from a NSFAS team from Cape Town who had arrived at the DUT campus to assist with the funding queries raised by the student, 683 of the 1443 who had been blocked from registering due to funding had been unblocked.
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With regard to the number of beds available to students at the Durban campus, Prof Methembu said managment had, through partnerships with service providers been able to secure 10 55o beds.
This was a 52 per cent increase since 2017 when the university was only able to provide 5100 beds, taking into account that university only owned 3400 beds. He said it is hoped that further partnerships with service providers will increase bed capacity offered by the university.
The university has also been successful in obtaining a court interdict preventing protests being held within 150m from any of its campuses. The interdict is a temporary measure that seeks to protect the rights of others who may not want to participate in protests. Prof Mthembu said the interdict would prevent outside opportunistic elements from causing trouble on campus.
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