A voice note is doing the rounds where a student at the University of Cape Town (UCT) urges his class mates not to “bother coming to campus tomorrow (3 October 2016)”. He explains that the #FeesMustFall protesters are planning big things for the university’s reopening.
This follows after weeks of protests by some students across the country, consequently leading to many universities shutting down, including UCT. UCT is scheduled to resume its academic programme tomorrow.
According to the voice note, the #FeesMustFall protesters will gather on the lower campus of UCT at 06:00 AM, from where they will head towards the M3 highway and barricade it. They plan on moving towards the upper campus from there to disrupt classes, evacuate buildings and shut down the university once more. He explains that the protesters will “if necessary, damage things”.
He continues to explain that the protesters want to engage with the police. He states that the protesters plan on aggravating the police forces to try to get police to act violently, which will create a better image of martyrdom for the protesters in the media.
He states that he believes campus will be a violent area and that people will get hurt. He says “it’s going to be World War f*cking Three”.
This follows a peaceful protest by students and staff earlier in the week in support of reopening the university and against further disruptions. This protest was the largest protest at UCT since the beginning of the year.
Vice-Chancellor Max Price has warned multiple times that if disruptions at the university should continue, the university will not be able to complete the academic year and that the university may have to shut down for the remainder of 2016.
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