By Sabelo Seroke
The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has extended the first semester academic calendar due to repeated disruptions of lectures and tests that are caused by the Economic Freedom Fighters Students’ Council (EFFSC) as its members repeatedly storm lecture venues to stop writing of tests and lectures. The organization says that this is because there are still students who have not received their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (SNFAS) allowances.
“Teaching days have been extended by eight working days, moving the end date from 20 May 2025 to 30 May 2025,” the DUT statement reads.
It says final results will now be released on 9 July 2025.
While thousands of students have reported to have received their delayed May funds, class disruptions continue. On Friday, 16 May 2025, EFF SC members stormed ML Sultan Campus as they forcefully removed students who were writing tests. Students have said that those who show resistance are threatened or manhandled. “We were in the middle of assessment when we heard loud noises and chanting outside the lecture room. That’s when a group of students dressed in red came in and told us that class was over and that we had to leave,” says second year Somatology student, Nandipha Dlomo.
The DUT EFFSC is using various social media platforms to request students not to go to class, but most do. As students were being removed, one student shouted about how they want to continue learning so they could complete their tests in time after which a member of the EFFSC involved in the removals responded, “We tried to ask students nicely that they must not go to class while there are still many students who have not eaten. The university thinks that we are here to play around, but they will listen to us eventually.”
There are students who say that they are in support of the disruptions. “I am one of the students who have not received any allowance. I am struggling as it is, but I am grateful that there are people who are fighting for us”, says Luthando Motloung.
The week prior, the university had stopped lectures for just two days and that seemed to have brought a temporary halting to the protest action seen in campuses as well, but the return to the lecture hall seems to have come with the return of red T-shirts that are protesting, forcibly removing students and calls for all teaching and learning to come to a halt.
