Dear Colleagues and Students

The Senior Executive Team of the University of the Witwatersrand met on Sunday, 15 March 2020, and made the following decisions:

1. All contact teaching and University activities involving face to face interaction are postponed, including tests, for Monday, 16 March 2020. All students are requested to remain at home or to confine themselves to their rooms in residence. Students are encouraged to follow the social distancing policy and to limit interaction where this is possible.
2. Special arrangements are being made for students who usually eat in dining halls.
3. Employees are expected to come to work in order to ensure that operations continue. Employees are requested to maintain social distance, and where possible meetings and group work should be conducted telephonically, online, or via video conferencing. We continue to follow the NICD’s protocols in this regard.
4. All graduations will be postponed until further notice. New arrangements will be communicated in due course.
5. A temporary moratorium has been placed on all travel, both outbound and inbound, and applies to both local and international travel. This also means that people who have travelled into South Africa, should not be allowed to enter the University.

Remember to also make use of the NICD’s Coronavirus Emergency 24-hour hotline number and to visit the NICD’s website at www.nicd.ac.za if required. For those who are tested at independent laboratories, remember that these are preliminary results. All positive results must be verified by the NICD.

We will keep the Wits community informed as to plans from Tuesday onwards after consultation with the Department of Health and the Department of Higher Education and Training. In the interim, student queries should be directed to the Dean of Students via Jerome.September@wits.ac.za whilst employees with queries should email their line manager, Head of School or respective Senior Executive Team member.

Thank you

SENIOR EXECUTIVE TEAM

15 MARCH 2020 (20:00)