Attorney Comfort Ngidi is threatening legal action against KZN’s three top universities if lectures do not resume soon under alert level three, says a News24 report.

Ngidi, the father of four students who attend the University of KZN, the Durban University of Technology and Mangosuthu University of Technology, said he will be left with no other option but to go to court if lectures for senior and post graduate students do not resume.

In a letter sent to the institutions by Ngidi and Company Incorporated, the universities were given five days to call a parents meeting to deliberate on the grounds for the continued closures. Alternatively, Ngidi said they had to provide a detailed plan of their opening programmes.

Ngidi said he could not understand why the universities had been slow in formulating a plan for the staggered return of a maximum of 33% of the student population as announced by Higher Education, Science & Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande.

He added he was at his wits’ end as several efforts to engage the universities on when lectures would resume, went unanswered.

Alan Khan, DUT’s senior director of corporate affairs, confirmed the university had received the letter and said that their legal office is preparing a response.

Khan said as per directive from the Higher Education & Training Department, all final year students requiring clinical training in the faculty of health sciences returned to campus on 8 June.

He said the university is expecting a further 10 000 students in selected programmes – most of whom are in their final year of studies – to return to campuses this week.

Mangosuthu Durban University of Technology and UKZN did not respond to a media query, says the report.

Full News24 report