Jail threat to three of TUT brass

The TUT and three of its top officials must explain to a high court why they should not be held in contempt of a court order.

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Pretoria - The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) and three of its top officials – including vice-chancellor – must explain to the high court in Pretoria why they should not be held in contempt of a court and face a fine of R30 000, or six months imprisonment, in a sequel to last year’s protest action at its campuses.

The alleged contempt followed last year’s eviction of students from campus residences during which the court issued an urgent order allowing the evicted students to return.

It is claimed that TUT, its vice-chancellor Nthabiseng Ogude, its registrar, Motoane Mothata, and Vusi Mgwenya, of its legal department, turned a deaf ear to the order issued on campuses during January last year.

To quell these protests, TUT decided to close all its campuses and to evict the students without first obtaining a court order. Ogude has since left the institution.

Judge Mabel Jansen, in a scathing judgment, said TUT had erred to take matters in its own hands and not to play open cards with the court, as it was unlawful to evict anyone without first obtaining a court order to this effect.

While Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), on the day it obtained an urgent order for the students to return to their residences, personally handed a copy to security staff at TUT, the order was apparently ignored.

Judge Jansen was told that the director of campus security even informed Mgwenya, but that he informed the security not to comply with it. TUT even published its knowledge regarding the order on its website.

TUT stated that it did comply with the order two days later, but LHR said this was only done three days after the order was issued.

LHR said its lawyer attempted to contact both Ogude and Mothata on the day the order for the students to return was issued. The telephone calls and e-mails to these officials went unanswered.

TUT said in spite of the desperate, life threatening situation on campus at the time, the officials did not look at their e-mails for the entire weekend.

It was also said that they could not be expected to answer their phones on a Saturday night.

Judge Jansen said: “These excuses ring hollow given the fact that the officials knew that they had to be on full alert throughout the weekend. It bears mention that the anti-eviction ruling ordered TUT to immediately allow the students to return. The officials at TUT, who were fully aware of the order, did not obey it as they adopted the stance that it had not been served by the sheriff or deputy sheriff. Adopting such a stance in an extremely urgent matter, is questionable,” the judge said.

In defending its decision to evict the students, TUT said “it was the easiest decision” under the circumstances.

Judge Jansen said in circumstances where TUT claimed things were dangerous on campus, a supine approach was inappropriate. She said its officials knew there would be massive repercussions, yet they never read their e-mails or answered their phones. This conduct couldn’t be excused, she said.

She allowed the three officials to be joined as parties in the contempt application launched by LHR, which will be heard at a later stage.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

Pretoria News