MANAGEMENT of the University of KwaZulu-Natal has announced it had made the decision to suspend the reopening of its campuses.
This comes after President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to move the country from Level 1 to an “adjusted” Level 3 lockdown as the country’s Covid-19 death and infection rates continue to spike.
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The campuses were set to reopen on 4 January 2021.
Normah Zondo, the university’s Acting Executive Director of Corporate Relations, said both of the campuses were located in districts which had been identified as hotspot areas.
She said it was therefore “critical” that both campuses remain closed for all on-campus activities (excluding essential services) until 18 January 2021.
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Zondo advised staff and students that all 2021 registration processes would commence on 18 January 2021 and would have to be completed online.
“There will be no registration services and/or registration assistance available on campus,” she said.
“The President’s address on 28 December 2020 set out in stark terms the reality of a second wave of the Covid-19 virus in South Africa. More than a million of our fellow citizens have now been infected—including more than 50,000 new cases in just four days. Just over 27,000 South Africans have died. Still worse, it appears that young people are particularly susceptible to the new strain of the virus which has now taken hold in our country with the KwaZulu-Natal Province being among the worst impacted,” said Zondo.
Caxton Local Media Covid-19 reporting
Dear reader, As your local news provider, we have the duty of keeping you factually informed on Covid-19 developments. As you may have noticed, mis- and disinformation (also known as “fake news”) is circulating online. Caxton Local Media is determined to filter through the masses of information doing the rounds and to separate truth from untruth in order to keep you adequately informed. Local newsrooms follow a strict pre-publication fact-checking protocol. A national task team has been established to assist in bringing you credible news reports on Covid-19. Readers with any comments or queries may contact National Group Editor Irma Green (irma@caxton.co.za) or Legal Adviser Helene Eloff (helene@caxton.co.za). At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations
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