WSU budget ‘not enough’

While accommodation will receive a fraction of infrastructure spend, student debt blamed as ‘chief stumbling block’

Just R20m of the R300m infrastructure budget that Walter Sisulu University will receive from the education department will go towards the refurbishment of student housing.

WSU spokesperson Yonela Tukwayo said the amount would go towards fixing student accommodation on the Butterworth campus.

However, she added that other grants would be accessed to improve student accommodation in other areas, although she could not say how much would be spent.

The Daily Dispatch recently reported on the dismal state of WSU’s KGB residence at the Nelson Mandela Drive campus in Mthatha. Problems include exposed electric wires, dark passages, leaking pipes and broken toilets.

Education department minister Naledi Pandor has pledged to support the university in addressing some of its infrastructure programmes.

The department is set to pump more than R300m into the university over the next three years.

Tukwayo said the multimillion-rand intervention would improve the current situation, but it fell far short of what the institution needed to bring it to a satisfactory level.

She said an estimated R210m of the R300m had been set aside for the construction of a brand new teaching facility, as well as refurbishments and upgrades to various teaching and learning spaces, including buildings, laboratories and lecture halls across some of the campuses.

“Out of the R210m, an estimated R80m is set to be spent on the construction of brand new lecture venues for Butterworth campus’s education faculty, while an estimated R132m will see refurbishments made to buildings belonging to the faculties of commerce, education and humanities at the Mthatha campus,” she said.

An estimated R210m of the R300m had been set aside for the construction of a brand new teaching facility

Upgrades will also be carried out at the natural science faculty’s laboratories in Mthatha, with refurbishments at various teaching spaces at the Buffalo City and Butterworth campuses, as well as water and sewerage reticulation work at both the Mthatha and Butterworth campuses.

Tukwayo said an estimated R123m was also set to be pumped into projects related to ICT, student housing on the Butterworth campus, environmental and social sustainability schemes, as well as projects related to national imperatives.

This will bring the grand total of the three-year intervention to R335.7m.

She flagged the problem of student debt as the chief stumbling block in the university’s efforts to reach its desired ambitions of providing the best quality education for students.

She said a number of the challenges which had arisen as a result of the astronomical debt owed by students to the university over the years would be alleviated if WSU could recoup the money.

“From sports and recreation facilities to upkeep of existing facilities to construction of new offices and residences and the maintenance of the old, these could be achieved.

“In this regard, the university would need a total of about R3bn,” said Tukwayo.