News24.com | UKZN suspends classes across all campuses until further notice

UKZN suspends classes across all campuses until further notice

2020-02-10 18:24

Cebelihle Mthethwa

Firefighters on Tuesday put out the last embers at the William O’Brien building.

Firefighters on Tuesday put out the last embers at the William O’Brien building. (Son)

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*Correction and apology at the bottom of article

Classes have come to a complete halt at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) as students demand that their historical debt be removed so that they can register for the 2020 academic year.

Students have been protesting against the university's decision not to scrap students' previous debt which has prevented some registrations for 2020. Rising tensions led to several buildings being set alight by students last week as part of their protest.

The university has issued a formal statement suspending all classes from Monday until further notice.

According to the university's acting registrar, Dr Kathy Cleland, the institution would continue to discuss the matter with the SRC on Tuesday.

Despite the suspension of all academic programmes, students were encouraged to continue with the registration process.

"Registration for both undergraduate and postgraduate will, however, continue unabated, and I urge all students to conclude their registration as soon as possible," Cleland advised.

*CORRECTION: This article erroneously used quotes from a previous article on UKZN attributed to former SRC secretary general Siyabonga Khumalo. His quotes were from a previous article in 2019 but were not adequately represented as such. We apologise for the inconvenience caused.