An urgent application brought by the Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command (EFFSC), the South African Students Congress (SASCO), the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) and the Young Black Men’s Movement (YBMM) against the University of Fort Hare (UFH) was struck from the roll today after the applicants failed to comply with the court’s timetable and filed incomplete papers. The student groups were represented by Dr Michael Somniso, a former UFH registrar that was dismissed.

This means the small group of students that remain on campus and who refuse to leave campus may face disciplinary actions for disobeying a lawful instruction by University.

The application had asked the court to interdict alleged evictions from residences, permit students to return to campus, restrain the University from alleged intimidation or harassment of students who remain on campus, and to order the University, the Vice-Chancellor and the Deputy Registrar: Legal to pay legal costs.

According to UFH, the applicants received a judicial Directive at 16:55 on 9 October—issued after they lodged a certificate of urgency. The University stressed that this document was not a court order, as publicly claimed, but merely a procedural notice setting out the timelines for the case:

However, the applicants missed the 19:00 deadline and only submitted a Notice of Motion at 11:00 today—approximately 14 hours late and without a supporting affidavit. UFH said that without affidavits, it could not meaningfully respond, and the court had no evidentiary basis to evaluate the application.

As a result of the procedural non-compliance and defective filing, the court struck the matter from the roll, making no ruling on the merits of the claims.