Almost an hour ago, campus was invaded by a marauding group of taxi drivers who entered the gate clad in balaclavas and made it clear that they intend stopping the normal operations of the university. As SASCO, this didn’t shock us because as we have said yesterday, there were rumours circulating around that such would happen. This is just a confirmation of those rumours.

As things stand now, university operations are halted. A long two trailer Buscor vehicle has been used to barricade the gate together with piles of stones which were dropped there by a truck. Taxi operators are outside the gate. They are demanding to meet the management to continue with whatever they left hanging with them.

As SASCO, we wish to retaliate that the situation is very dangerous to students. It is in the best interest of students to stay in their residences. Those on campus must take extra caution. We value the lives of all students. We insist that no examination is so much important as to risk your life for. You can recover from a lost exam but once your life is taken away, there is no coming back.

It has come to our attention that some students went to exam rooms and some were disrupted as they continued while others may have finished. SASCO cannot go and remove students who choose to risk their lives and go against the advise we provided. Whilst we engage students on what must happen, we will not fight with students. What is evident though is that the situation is threatening and not conducive for exams.

In conclusion, we want to call upon the management once more to invite DHET so that the issues raised by the taxi operators are immediately resolved. It’s wrong that the management continues to bury its head in the sand on the matter.