DUT Students Stage Protest On First Day Back

On their first day back from the holiday break, a small group of Durban University of Technology (DUT) students embarked on a peaceful march to the vice chancellor's office on Tuesday.

After handing over their memorandum of demands, the student representative council (SRC) went into a meeting with university management.

There was a heavy police and security presence at the campus as the SRC-led group demanded that classes stop until all students had received their responses from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

The group also called for accommodation to be made available for 1 500 students before Tuesday.

Speaking to News24 ahead of the meeting, university spokesperson Alan Khan said the students were largely peaceful.

"We will have to go through the memorandum and understand the request and demands, and respond to the SRC as per the requirements of the memorandum and take it from there."

DUT South African Students Congress chairperson and former SRC president Siphephelo Mthembu said that while he agreed with the demands the SRC had outlined, he "would have appreciated better organisation".

"The SRC needs to be more decisive and the meeting they are having will have resolutions. This issue has been happening since last year. We need this to be resolved now."