Court halts UKZN law re-exams pending Senate decision

The University of KwaZulu-Natal’s (UKZN) planned re-examination of several affected LLB modules has been temporarily halted after the KwaZulu-Natal High Court granted an interim order staying next week’s examinations pending a decision by the university’s Senate.

In a statement issued on Friday, the university said two urgent applications relating to the re-examination of the affected LLB modules were heard in the High Court in Durban.

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The court ordered that the examinations scheduled for next week be stayed until the university’s Senate meets to determine and confirm new examination dates.

However, UKZN stressed that the court had not cancelled the re-examinations.

“The Court did not order that the re-examination of the affected modules be cancelled. The requirement that the affected modules be rewritten remains in place,” the university said.

It said the court’s order related only to the determination of the examination dates, which must be decided by Senate in terms of the university’s Regulations for the Administration of Tests and Examinations.

An urgent Senate meeting has been convened to determine the new dates.

The university said students would be informed of the exact dates, times and venues of the re-examinations through official communication channels once Senate had made its decision.

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Students have been urged to monitor their university email accounts and Learn module pages for updates.

In the meantime, UKZN encouraged affected students to continue preparing for the re-examinations.

“The University recognises that this situation has been unsettling and has caused uncertainty for students,” the statement said.

It added that counselling and student support services remained available for students affected by the ongoing uncertainty.

The latest development follows widespread outrage after UKZN announced earlier this month that several first-semester LLB examinations would have to be rewritten after examination papers were leaked.

The university said it had commissioned an independent external forensic investigation after discovering that the integrity of several examination papers had been compromised.

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Affected modules include Administrative Law, Bioethics, Constitutional Law, Income Tax, International Law and Maritime Law at the Howard College campus, while Maritime Law and Succession are affected at the Pietermaritzburg campus.

At the time, UKZN said the decision to rewrite the examinations was necessary to protect the integrity, fairness and credibility of the assessment process and ensure no student was unfairly advantaged or disadvantaged.

The decision sparked frustration among fourth-year law students, many of whom had already returned home, started vacation work or made travel arrangements after completing both the main and supplementary examination periods.

Students told The Witness they had received notice on 3 July, giving them just 10 days to prepare for multiple rewritten examinations.

Several students described the decision as financially and emotionally devastating, saying they were forced to cancel travel plans, forfeit vacation employment opportunities and incur additional accommodation and transport costs.

Some also raised concerns about the revised timetable, saying they would have had to rewrite four or five examinations over three days, placing them under immense academic and psychological pressure.

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At the time, UKZN executive director for corporate services Dr Normah Zondi said those responsible for the examination breach would face disciplinary, civil and, where applicable, criminal action following the forensic investigation.