Students bring WSU to a halt

Protests over residences, security, registration and NSFAS at Mthatha campus

WALTER Sisulu University students at the Nelson Mandela Drive campus have taken to the streets to voice their frustration with conditions in their residences – and the university’s alleged inefficiencies around administering of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

Students claim the university failed to submit their results to the funding scheme and, as a result, they have not qualified for funding.

Campus SRC president Masixole Nyembezi said the students were also unhappy with campus security.

“We have been engaging the management of the university on these issues but what is unacceptable is the situation we find ourselves in having to lose funding because of inefficiency,” Nyembezi said.

Students took to the streets on Monday and police and extra security have been deployed on campus since then. University spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo said the students started their protests on Monday and central to their demands was the entire administration of NSFAS.

“The students are complaining about NSFAS administration which is beyond WSU. All administration is done by NSFAS. I can state as a matter of fact, that the student representative councils from all four campuses were requested to submit any issues they have so that we could collectively bring these to the attention of NSFAS. Only one campus submitted concerns and Mthatha was among those that did not submit NSFAS issues as requested,” Tukwayo said. Among the demands from the students is that the university should reopen registration for education students.

Tukwayo said the university could not have another intake because it has reached the quotas set by the Department of Higher Education and Training. Nyembezi said the university had failed to manage its registration systems. It had allowed students to pay the initial registration fee, which allowed them to register on the day of registration, but some students were later kicked out by the system when quotas were exceeded, Nyembezi said.

All operations at the Mthatha campus have now come to a standstill with some students threatening to lay fraud charges against the university for taking their initial payments but not registering them.

The Daily Dispatch sent questions to NSFAS for comment but no reply was received at the time of writing. —