EIS on its way for new campus site

WALTER Sisulu University (WSU) has employed specialists to conduct an environmental impact study (EIS) on the land identified as the proposed site for its new campus along the N6 near the Komani Psychiatric Hospital.

Komani campus rector Professor McGlory Speckman said the EIS was an integral process to be conducted before the construction of the new main campus on what has been named the Greenfields site.

“The EIS is used to provide a sufficient level of detail to demonstrate that a proposed development will have no negative impacts on the natural features or ecological functions of the area and surrounding lands. Once that is complete, it will pave a way for us to move to other aspects that will lead to the construction of the campus,” Speckman explained.

The campus, set to cost over R2-billion, will be built on 115ha of land that will accommodate between 5000 and 6000 students.

The Rep reported (“WSU boasts new campus”, December 8 2017) that former Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality mayor Lindiwe Gunuza-Nkwentsha indicated during the handover of the site that the decision to give the land to the university for free was an important step towards developing the municipality as an economic hub.

The university is also set to build two new lecture rooms at its Grey Street campus, as well as an ablution facility and a hall.

Recent developments at WSU include the addition of the faculty of science and agriculture at the Whittlesea site.

“In the near future we plan to go big on commercial farming and that can only happen once we have a faculty.”