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R460m to fix varsity’s torched buildings ‘could have been spent better’

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A Financial aid office at CPUT's Bellville campus was petrol bombed on Tuesday evening. Picture: Supplied
A Financial aid office at CPUT's Bellville campus was petrol bombed on Tuesday evening. Picture: Supplied

The ANC has condemned in “the harshest possible terms” the torching of several buildings of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology’s campuses in Bellville and Mowbray.

The department of higher education estimated the cost of damage to universities, as a result of protests, at about R459 million.

“This is money that would be most optimally used to fund the shortages and challenges in our higher education system rather than addressing unnecessary damages,” ANC spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said today.

“These criminal acts must be punished using the full might of our law enforcement system as they can never be a justification for any grievance anyone may have had,” he said.

A staff room in Mowbray was torched at about 4am on Wednesday morning, and a petrol bomb thrown about 10.40pm on Tuesday at the Bellville campus, significantly damaging a financial aid office.

Early last Monday morning, a petrol bomb was thrown at an engineering workshop on the Cape Town campus.

The protests appear to revolve around student accommodation, unhappiness over campus security and student safety, and insourcing.

“Behaviour such as burning university buildings is short-sighted and devoid of any appreciation of the dire need faced by students and our institutions of higher education. The ANC calls on any person with information in relation to these unlawful acts to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators to book,” said ANC's spokesperson said.

Kodwa said the university management and the student body must close rank to expose and isolate “these agent provocateurs”, should they be within their ranks.

“All stakeholders are called upon to redouble their efforts to find amicable and lasting solutions to disputes and the restoration of the academic programme,” Kodwa said. – News24

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