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PHUTI MOSOMANE
AFTER a series of countrywide protests by students at higher education institutions regarding the newly introduced accommodation cap and fee payment blocks, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) says it will intervene to resolve the impasse.
“NSFAS held robust consultations with the South African Union of Students (SAUS) to mitigate these challenges ahead of the commencement of the academic classes,” NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana said on Thursday.
Skosana said NSFAS will take extraordinary measures to ensure that all funded students are not left stranded “due to skyrocketing accommodation costs.”
There have been protests in most universities against a new accommodation cap of R45 000 per annum.
During a meeting held in Gauteng on Monday, NSFAS management and SAUS agreed that the student union would assist the scheme in collating details of all students who do not have accommodation and are allegedly sleeping in public places.
“The scheme is also engaging universities in a bid to receive credible information to fast-track the process. In the meantime, NSFAS is in the process of identifying alternative accommodation to be provided within the stipulated rate of R45 000 per annum,” Skosana said.
The priority will be the universities affected by the accommodation cap, and these include the University of Pretoria, University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), Stellenbosch University, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZ), Rhodes University and Sol Plaatjie University.
NSFAS said SAUS has made an undertaking to contact all SRCs in affected universities to supply the information.
The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Innovation held an urgent meeting this week on Monday with the South African Union of Students (SAUS) and the South African Technical Vocational Education and Training Students Association (SATVETSA) where the student governance bodies expressed areas of concern across the post-school education and training sector (PSET), highlighting specific universities and colleges.
Chairperson Nompendulo Mkhatshwa, who is a former Fees Must Fall activist, said the committee supports SAUS and SATVETSA on their stance in support of the R45 000 cap on student accommodation allowances for NSFAS students.
Mkhatshwa said the exorbitant prices of student accommodation cannot be normalised as they are “tantamount to price fixing.”
The committee recommended that the Department of Higher Education and Training and NSFAS reach out with speed to the Competition Commission to address issues of alleged collusion between private accommodation providers and officials of the institutions.
“The committee reiterated that a cap on student accommodation not only looks at NSFAS-funded students, but takes into account self-funded students who need to be protected from price fixing by private accommodation providers,” said Mkhatshwa.
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