SA students in Russia fear exclusion and eviction
Payment bungle affects 229 learners
The Mpumalanga education department has assured that no student from the province currently studying in Russia will be evicted from their residences over nonpayment of fees.
The department, which claimed to have already paid R28m to the department of international relations and cooperation (Dirco) to pay to the 11 Russian universities that it owes for enrolling students from Mpumalanga, said they have given themselves at least two weeks to sort out the administrative bungle that has inconvenienced about 229 students.
In their desperate plea, the affected students on Wednesday wrote to premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane seeking her intervention after some of them were told to vacate their places of residence by yesterday, with others given until November 10 to leave.
The students said some of them had been barred by their universities to attend classes in the last three weeks.
“This is with sadness, desperation and urgency that we the student leaders are writing this letter. All the leaders have exhausted all of our options in trying to get our accommodation and tuition fees paid for.
“We are asking for assistance in getting our tuition and accommodation paid for through the authorisation of the department to the embassy for us to be able to not get expelled or evicted.
“Universities have given students until the 10th of November to vacate their places of residence. Sechenov University students are getting expelled on November 3. They need their tuition to be paid ASAP,” reads the letter.
Provincial education department spokesperson Jasper Zwane said the issue of payment started when they terminated their contract with the service provider whose responsibility was to pay the universities in the Russian currency.
He said the Auditor-General (AG) said there was a possibility that the department was being overcharged and they started demanding the universities a third party. To this end, the department is exploring possible avenues and has given itself at least two weeks to make a determination on this matter.
“Failure to submit the required invoices from the respective to also provide invoices when demanding payments from the department. The universities have a contract with Racus, an agent that facilitates the placement of foreign students in Russia.
Zwane said a delegation was sent to Russia last month to sort out the issue. “The intention of the visit by the delegation was to engage the universities on the need to submit tuition and accommodation invoices to enable the department to advise Dirco to effect due payments.
“They were also to meet with the students from the provinces in Russia to assure them of the commitment of the department to effect all due payments in compliance with the Public Finance Management Act. The delegation was received by the South African Embassy in Moscow and visited all the universities and met with the students,” Zwane said.
“They were unable to solicit the required invoices from the universities as required by the department. The universities cited contractual obligations they have with St Pietersburg Racus, which makes it difficult to share information with universities in Russia will make the payments for tuition and accommodation irregular... as such it remains imperative that invoices direct from universities are attached,” said Zwane.
He said the matter is expected to be resolved within two weeks.
The students told Sowetan that some students are not allowed to attended classes and some can’t attend practical studies as they are regarded as defaulters.
Sandile Gumede told Sowetan that they have exhausted all their communication channels to the department of education, hence writing to the premier.
...still there was no response [from the department], no university has been paid for our accommodation and now students are forced to squat because we cannot afford to pay for our accommodation anymore, and the department doesn’t seem to even care about this, thus we felt we needed urgent intervention from the premier’s office,” said Gumede.
Student Victoria Maheso, based in Moscow, said the embassy has been telling them that they can’t pay their tuition fees unless the department gives them an authorisation.
Premier Refilwe MtshweniTsipane’s office said it will respond to the students and the media about the matter after meeting with the department.