The hearings for each of  the 12 students who were suspended pending the outcome of a disciplinary process started on Thursday 13 October 2016 (3 hearings have taken place) and will continue this coming week.

The individual hearings of the first three students were completed in their absence on Thursday and Friday because they failed to appear before the Central Disciplinary Committee. The students and their legal representative had been informed timeously of the date, time and venue of the hearings. The Student Disciplinary Code makes provision for hearings in absentia and the Central Disciplinary Committee found no valid reason to postpone the hearings. The Committee applied its mind before deciding to proceed with the hearings in the absence of the students called before it. Notices of the findings of the Committee have been sent to each of the students and the legal representative acting for two of the students. (The representative withdrew from one of the students after the hearing was finalised.)

One student was found guilty in respect of a number of very serious misdemeanours and expelled from SU with immediate effect. In the other instances, the students were also guilty of serious misdemeanours, but less so, and suspended from the university for certain periods, with additional community services sanctions and other conditions attached