CUT enforces Digital Policy following online threats to students and staff

We wish to inform you that the university has taken the decision to seek a court interdict in view of constant disruptions by a group of students whose disruptive behaviour has had adverse effects on the university’s operations.  Management, together with all university stakeholders, remains resolute to bring about stability in the face of unlawful interferences, to safeguard the smooth running of the university and its academic project, to ensure the safety of staff and students, and protect public property.

Students and staff have experienced all forms of intimidations and harassment from this group of students who are known to management.   While Management, SRC and NSFAS officials are working tirelessly to find lasting solutions to the matters affecting our students including recurring funding-related matters, we condemn these violent protests with the contempt it deserves, and we urge our students to desist from this disruptive behaviour.  

An investigation is under way to ascertain all reported cases and any student who is found to have transgressed the Code of Conduct Student (Student Calendar 2022, Chapter 12)  and to have engaged in violent and disruptive acts of victimisation, intimidation, and harassment, will face disciplinary hearing, as their actions are not in the best interest of all stakeholders who are committed to a stable teaching and learning environment. Social Media Code of Conduct, https://www.cut.ac.za/social-networks 

Of great concern is what we have experienced earlier this week in which social media was used to intimidate and threaten some of our students.   We all have a duty to post and share information that is legal, ethical, and respectful on our social media platforms and all other communication platforms.  While the university has a digital communication policy to guide the use of this platform in our communication, the moment this tool is used irresponsibly to threaten and intimidate and bully others. Cyberbullying is a criminal act that management will not tolerate. 

It calls on all of us to reflect on what every student can do to address the challenges that are staring us in the face.   We must reclaim our safety and security. Every single one of us has a role to play. Certainly, we can, as a collective, make CUT a safer place for you to study and live in. A place where everyone who makes use of its facility can enjoy the freedoms entrenched in our Constitution, a university where we can realise and live up to our vision which finds expression in the values that underpin our democratic state, which include human dignity, social justice, and the advancement of human rights.  

Therefore, it is important that every student or employee at CUT is entitled to the protection of these rights without the fear, the apprehension and the insecurity which constantly diminishes the quality of their academic lives.

In closing, management urges any students who are affected by such incidents of cyberbullying to report to the whistleblower hotline where your confidentiality is safeguarded. The whistleblower hotline serves as a platform to report incidents of ethical violations anonymously. How to report: Tel (toll free): +27(0)800 222 225 | Fax: +27(0)86 522 2816 | E-mail: cut@whistleblowing.co.za | www.whistleblowing.co.za

Uploaded: 18 March 2022
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