Chaos at VUT registration

2012-01-24 10:49

Johannesburg - Security guards used pepper spray and batons to control crowds outside the Vaal University of Technology, SABC television news reported on Tuesday.

It showed cellphone video footage of students in long queues outside the university on Monday, waiting to register.

The report said that students started pushing each other, causing security guards to intervene with batons, pepper spray and taser guns.

Kediemetse Mokotsi, the institute's manager for corporate affairs, told Sapa on Tuesday that it did not condone the behaviour of the security guards.

Aggressive

"These are new security guards that came late last year and were not aware of how to deal with such a crowd.

"The matter will be taken up with the relevant departments."

The guards were described as being "aggressive" but Mokotsi could not go into detail about the commotion between students and guards.

There were no police on campus at the time.

"Yesterday was the first day for registrations for returning students and each faculty was allocated a specific date for it but students ignored the dates on their letters and they came on the wrong day when they were not expected," said Mokotsi.

The university planned to register 2 000 students per day. On Monday, it was unclear how many students had queued up.

The Vaal police were not immediately available to comment.

Earlier this month, a woman was killed in a stampede outside the University of Johannesburg, where late registrations were taking place.

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