University exams begin amidst heightened security

TALI FEINBERG

The campus has increased its security and set up a new, temporary exam venue specifically to allow students to continue with exams on schedule and in a safe environment, as the #FeesMustFall protests have traditionally interrupted exams over the last few years.

The new venue is surrounded by perimeter fencing and security personnel in riot gear, some accompanied by guard dogs like Rottweilers and German Shepherds. A water cannon truck is parked nearby.

In an announcement on the university’s website, Registrar Roy Pillay wrote: “The university management has had to take the extraordinary step of arranging an examination venue on the upper campus rugby field.

“It is a decision that has not been taken lightly. It was an outcome of an assessment of what arrangements would offer the best chance of conducting and successfully concluding the examination programme in the current circumstances of threats of disruption.”

Vice-Chancellor Max Price wrote to students ahead of exams: “We have taken this unusual step as a measure of our firm commitment to the huge majority of students who want to write their exams and see the academic year through to its end. A small number of protesters remain determined to see the university shut down, and have disrupted tests and exams over recent weeks.

“We have reduced the immediate presence of security within the exam perimeter to a minimum. However, we will have Campus Protection Services officers in the exam tents. In terms of the current interdict, any protesters attempting to disrupt exams, will be handed over to the South African Police Service for arrest.”

Soicher said: “Everyone is trying to make it seem like ‘business as usual’, but it is definitely not that way.” He added that SAUJS had received no complaints from Jewish students regarding their safety or interruption of their studies, but emphasised that the organisation would always be available to protect the interests of Jewish students.

He added that he did not know of any Jewish students taking part in disruptions, but that SAUJS respected their right to take part in peaceful protests. He pointed out that many leaders and participants of the protests, were not actually students at all, and that violence delegitimises what they are trying to achieve.

On Twitter, the new exam venue was greeted with derision and disgust, with some UCT students even calling it a “concentration camp”. Meanwhile at Wits, a potential protest was called off by the SRC after it received a plethora of complaints from students who wanted to take their exams on time and undisturbed.

“We will always be clear on our stance that we want free quality decolonised education, but if we will shut down campus with exams commencing, then we are not looking out for one another. We won’t be careless and excited by instigators who want a shutdown for their own motives and not for the genuine cause of free education,” SRC spokesman Sandla Mtotywa said in a statement.

SAUJS National Chairman Rachel Raff said she welcomed this “strategic, mature and level-headed” decision. She added that she had been concerned when 12 out of the 15 newly-elected SRC members at Wits were from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), especially with that party’s negative approach to Israel and their recent march on the Israeli Embassy.

However, she hoped that SAUJS could work with the SRC in the year ahead, especially with such rational decisions taking place.

Raff said that there had been no other disruptions on campuses. She wished all students well for exams and reminded them that SAUJS is here to support them, now and in the year ahead.