A group of Fort Hare University students has vowed to remain inside the institution’s residences, rejecting the institution’s instruction to vacate.
This is despite student representatives from various organisations at the university having received a major blow on Friday in their efforts to have the court to interdict UFH’s eviction notice, following violent protests by students that left R500m worth of damage as a result of vandalism, overturned.
The urgent application, which was brought by the EFF Student Command (EFFSC), the SA Students Congress (Sasco), the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma) and the Young Black Men’s Movement (YBMM) against the institution, was struck from the roll on Friday after the applicants failed to comply with the court’s timetable and filed incomplete papers.
This, according to the university, meant that the group of students that refuse to leave campus may face disciplinary action for disobeying a lawful instruction.
The student groups were represented by Dr Michael Somniso, a former UFH registrar who was dismissed.
The applicants had asked the court to interdict alleged evictions from residences, permit students to return to campus, restrain the university from alleged intimidation or harassment of students who remain on campus, and to order UFH vice-chancellor professor Sakhela Buhlungu and the institution’s deputy registrar for legal services to pay legal costs.
“The applicants received a judicial directive at 4.55pm on October 9 — issued after they lodged a certificate of urgency. The university stressed that this document was not a court order, as publicly claimed, but merely a procedural notice setting out the timelines for the case.
“However, the applicants missed the 7pm deadline and only submitted a notice of motion at 11am today (Friday) — about 14 hours late and without a supporting affidavit. UFH said that without affidavits, it could not meaningfully respond, and the court had no evidentiary basis to evaluate the application.
“As a result of the procedural noncompliance and defective filing, the court struck the matter from the roll, making no ruling on the merits of the claims,” the institution said.
However, about 50 students who were yet to leave the residences and had marched from Southernwood to the East London magistrate court in protest over the evictions, said they were going nowhere.
The group consisted of mostly students from outside the province, who claimed to not have money to return home.
Speaking to the paper outside court, one of the student leaders told the paper they would not leave, no matter the outcome.
“We don’t have money and whatever the outcome is, we will not leave because we come from very far.
“The management knew we would be demonstrating here so they locked other students in Caxton [Residence] so that they do not join us.”
They now feared that if they went out of the premises, they will not be allowed to get back in.
The student further said that some of the remaining students came from as far as Limpopo, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
“There is no money for these students to leave and the university management must revoke their decision to kick us out. No student will be kicked out here and we will visit all these residences,” the student said.
A letter seen by the paper showed the student representatives’ intention to oppose what they called the “unlawful” evictions imposed on them.
“The struggle is not only about leadership, it is about every student who has been affected, displaced, or who now lives in fear of the same injustice. Your presence matters. Your voice matters. Together, we must show our collective strength, our capacity, and our refusal to be silenced or displaced.
“Let us fill the court and its surroundings in our numbers. Let us stand firm with our leaders as they defend the dignity, security, and future of every Fort Hare student.
“We are not going anywhere. No student must leave their residence. We remain united in the struggle for justice and fairness,” the letter stated.
This week, the Dispatch reported about the weeklong acts of violence in which three buildings were torched on the Dikeni and East London campuses.
The last attack took place on the East London campus in the early hours on Thursday, when unidentified people damaged and set fire to the education block.
Buhlungu announced the suspension of face-to-face academic activities and ordered the evacuation of students from university residences.
He was reacting to Wednesday’s fire in Dikeni, which damaged the administration block, the student centre, auditorium and HIV centre.
On Monday last week, the university’s staff centre was also torched in Dikeni.
Daily Dispatch
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