Angry students burn offices
THEY DEMAND PAYOUT OF BURSARIES
SOME college students in Mpumalanga spent the weekend occupying offices which they later set alight.
The students were demanding their National Student Financial Aid Scheme ( NSFAS) payouts.
Ehlanzeni Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) College students staged a sit-in on Friday and burnt part of the institution’s offices in Mbombela CBD.
They were demanding that college bosses give them their transport, food and accommodation money which they said formed part of their NSFAS bursaries.
Mpumalanga community safety, security and liaison MEC Vusi Shongwe said: “We have agreed that the leadership of the college on Tuesday go and meet the Minister of Higher Education and Training. On Friday, myself and the college leadership will meet the students to report back what the minister said.”
Shongwe said they could not watch the students burning the building and distracting traffic in the CBD because they did not want to stop picketing.
Ehlanzeni TVET College student representative council secretary Sipho Mnisi said should the meeting with the ministry be unsuccessful, they would be forced to continue protesting.
“Here the management of the college told us that as of July there will be no cash for accommodation, transport and food for the students who have bursaries. That is why we staged the sleep-in. We have forced the management to deal with this because we believe money is there but some officials want to claim the money for themselves,” Mnisi said.
“If they do not give us the money on Friday, there’s more coming, it’s not us the leadership but the students who voted us to lead who want to fight.”
Mnisi said students were also faced with the shortages of textbooks and lecturers who worked on a temporary basis.
“We don’t have enough textbooks, students have to share them in big numbers. We’re also faced with a situation where our lecturers are not permanent,” said Mnisi.
College spokesman, Mxolisi Ndimande, was not available for comment but one of his colleagues, who did not want to give his name, said he was not briefed about the issue.
“I was not there over the weekend; please speak to the communications department. “I speak on special projects when given a chance,” said the official.