UCT suspends classes with immediate effect
15 March 2020
The University of Cape Town executive and the Leadership Lekgotla, following the address by the State President, Cyril Ramaphosa and on the advice of a range of agencies and health specialists, took a decision to break immediately for Term 1 vacation and to suspend classes as from and including Monday, 16 March 2020.
The UCT leadership was persuaded of the importance of this step as a precautionary, proactive measure to minimise the risk of spreading the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). The most important public health principle is containment of the disease as far as possible, including avoiding social gatherings as much as possible and minimising groups of people gathering in one space.
UCT will therefore, in the context of the declaration of a national disaster, close the residences. Students must therefore vacate the residences within the next 72 hours from 16 March 2020.
The Term 1 vacation would have started on Saturday, 21 March 2020. It will now commence immediately. Term 2 was set to commence on Monday, 30 March 2020, but UCT will confirm the beginning of Term 2 after an assessment of prevailing and quickly changing circumstances.