An independent enquiry to investigate the incident that led to the death of Mrs Gloria Sekwena who was crushed outside the gates of the University of Johannesburg’s Bunting Road Campus on 10 January 2012, has been set up by the Council of the University of Johannesburg.
“The purpose of the investigation,” says Professor Roy Marcus, chairman of the UJ Council, “is to prevent a recurrence of such an incident.”
“We felt that a full and independent investigation of the facts surrounding the incident was necessary. By investigating the root causes of the incident, and reporting on them, steps can be taken to prevent any similar incident from happening again.”
He emphasised that the investigation was “fact finding” not “fault finding”.
The panel that will conduct the enquiry comprises Judge Yvonne Mokgoro (retired Constitutional Court Judge), who chairs the panel, Dr Derek Swemmer (Registrar, University of the Free State) and Mr Rick Meyer (independent consultant on crowd management). The panel will be assisted in the presentation of the evidence by Advocate Nasreen Rajab-Budlender. The panel plans to complete its investigation and submit its report to the University Council by the end of April.
The head of the panel, Judge Yvonne Mokgoro encourages public participation, calling on anyone who has relevant information as to what happened on that day to make it available to the panel. In addition, relatives of those injured in the incident are invited to make submissions to the Panel.
A dedicated email address has been set up for that purpose at investigationuj@gmail.com. Sms messages can be sent to 31854 (All sms’s will be charged at the standard rates.) In addition, sealed evidence boxes have also been set up at the entrances to the University of Johannesburg Campus, on Bunting Road and on Kingsway Road, if members of the public wish to drop off submissions. The closing date for submissions is 17 March 2012.
