Banned FeesMustFall students thrown lifeline by court

FeesMustFall students‚ banned from South Africa's top university‚ have been thrown a lifeline by the highest court in the land.

The Constitutional Court ordered on Wednesday that the five activists need not cough up for the legal costs for the University of Cape Town.

The five‚ who participated in protest action in 2016‚ are still not allowed to set foot on the campus after the university obtained an interdict against them in the High Court in Cape Town.

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UCT obtained the order after protesters torched original artworks and portraits which they removed from the university's upper campus. They had also erected a shack on campus to highlight the student housing problems at the university.

The students were ordered to foot the university's legal bill in the high court. Their petition to the Supreme Court of Appeal was unsuccessful. But Judge Bess Nkabinde ordered that each party should pay its own costs.

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Nkabinde stated that the protesters – some of whom were not registered students - “were in pursuit of the realisation of the overarching objective of a free education”. She also noted that they had helped to achieve a 0% fee increase in 2016 and got government to increase spending on education.

But‚ Nkabinde said‚ the protests had negative outcomes.

“The protests also affected almost one and all in other ways‚ for example‚ quality time for learning was lost; properties were destroyed; injuries were sustained; many students were arrested and others excluded from campuses; some students were excluded from furthering their studies; life was lost and costs in litigation were incurred as a result of the protestors’ unlawful conduct‚” said Nkabinde.

TMG Digital/TimesLIVE