The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has announced that it has closed all of its five campuses until further notice.
This comes after a massive number of students embarked on a march on Tuesday, 6 April 2021, following a “fake” social media post inviting them to register on campus. This resulted in the arrival of uninvited people on campus who failed to adhere to the COVID-19 procedures. Subsequently, the university requested students to leave the campus as it did not invite walk-ins.
A media statement released by the university disclosed that “overnight a significant number of people continued to occupy the Sports Centre and refused the requested to leave campus. Over the course of this morning, the situation escalated with protesters milling around outside the Steve Biko campus, hurling stones at buildings, damaging university property, barricading public roads, including several attempts to invade more buildings on campus.”
Consequently, the university called all law enforcement agencies to calm down the situation. The DUT statement further disclosed that the university suspended the on-campus support for online registration yesterday, however, all online functions and activities will continue including registrations.
