Campus communications University of Cape Town
From the UCT Executive

Important Notice

04 February 2016 | DVC Prof Francis Petersen

Dear RMF

It has come to our attention that you have posted a notice on your Facebook page indicating that you will be meeting with Senior Management at 5pm today at Azania House. Furthermore, that you have made a call to all financially and/or academically excluded students without accommodation to meet directly with Senior Management. This is, despite the fact that we have made it absolutely clear to you that we will not be meeting with you at this stage.

Our reasons for NOT meeting with you at this stage are as follows:

  • You wrote to us on Wednesday, 3 February 2016 at 16h35 with several demands.
  • We wrote to you in response on the same day at 20h41 to explain that we will only consider engaging further with you once you have ended the occupation of Avenue House which you began on Monday, 1 February 2016 leading to the expulsion of the Avenue House staff from their workstations.
  • You wrote to us on Thursday, 4 February 2016 at 09h41, to say that you have vacated Avenue Hall. We sent an officer to the building after your email to find that five people were still in the building.
  • We wrote on Thursday, 4 February 2016 asking you to clarify what you meant by vacating and to reassure us that that the occupation will end unconditionally. Furthermore that Avenue House staff could return to their workstations and would not be interfered with.
  • Almost at the same time, you (20 people) invaded the Cadbol building, intimidating and forcing staff to leave the building.
  • This created a situation where the Masingene building was locked in fear that this will be invaded too.

The actions by you, the fear you have created in staff members, the racial abuse of staff and the interference in the work has resulted in a situation where we have no functional student services at present. The very issues you raise and bring to the table cannot be resolved by the services having been rendered disrupted.

The above give us no indication that there is a relationship of trust and that you are keen to engage in an accountable way. We are keen to engage with you but will only do so once you have demonstrated that such engagement can occur in a respectful manner.

Sincerely,

Prof Francis Petersen
Deputy Vice-Chancellor

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