Students vie for share of R3m pie

Disabled can also apply for BCM bursary fund for 2019 academic year

Applications for the Buffalo City Metro bursary fund are now officially open for the 2019 academic year – and for the first time ever, the metro has called for people living with disabilities to apply.

City manager Andile Sihlahla issued an advert on Tuesday calling for previously disadvantaged students to apply for the bursary fund, which covers tuition and registration fees, prescribed books, study material and accommodation.

The closing date to submit applications for the bursary fund is October 31.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said: “We’ve had disability as a requirement before but over the years we’ve never had disabled applicants and we’ve never processed a student of such nature.

“I think we felt that this year let’s try to make it prominent in terms of how we recruit in our media, and hopefully we are going to get people with disabilities to also feel that they are part of this.”

Another first will be to give preference to students who have been admitted to TVET colleges.

“This is mainly because over the years we’ve learnt from experience that a bias towards TVET colleges will help us to net even more students,” he added.

“Their output is very key towards the city, with courses of engineering as they have practicals and we are hoping we can encourage more students to apply,” Ngwenya said.

To celebrate the 10th year of the programme, the metro has increased the budget from R2m last year to R3m for this current financial year.

BCM currently funds 42 beneficiaries with 16 being new beneficiaries while 26 are carryover beneficiaries.

Two beneficiaries who spoke to the Dispatch on Tuesday said they would specifically encourage disadvantaged students from rural areas to apply for the bursary.

“It’s not for rich people or people with comfortable backgrounds, it’s made for us,” Anga Javu, 21, from Zinyoka Location said:

“At my home no one works. I even had to drop out of school in 2015 because of financial problems,” he said.

“When I heard about the fund, I applied last year and I got it and it is helping me a lot, so others should apply too.”

It’s not for rich people or people with comfort, it’s made for us. At my home no one works