Mthoko was thrilled when his National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) application was approved as he was going to further his studies at Vaal University of Technology (VUT).
Little did he know that he would spend his time fighting for the payment of his NSFAS allowances, and the nail in the coffin was when he was told last Thursday morning he was not on the list of VUT funded students and had to leave his room to make space for other students.
Mthoko, who asked for his surname not to be used, is among a group of hundreds of students who have been up in arms because the institution has allegedly failed to pay their allowances. This has also impacted on their academic programme.
“I am a first-year student studying a diploma in policing and I applied for NSFAS last year. I registered using NSFAS and was also allocated a campus residence. On Thursday morning I was told to leave my room as my name does not appear in the list of the funded students.
"I went to the finance office and I was told they will fix the error. This does not make any sense to me and I don’t want to go back home even though the past weeks have been a struggle as we have not yet received food, accommodation and book allowances,” he said.
Menzi Ngobese, a second-year marketing student, said he started a petition as he felt that students were being deprived of their right to education. The petition has since been signed by 516 students.
“The institution does not have a student representative council (SRC) as it was disbanded two years back and we don’t know who to communicate with. There is no formal or informal communication from the institution.
"Students are hungry and not so long ago a first-year student collapsed because of hunger. Students are writing their semester tests but they don’t have books or study materials. The worst part is when students are kicked out of campus residences because they have not paid but the institution has not yet released their allowances,” he said.
Former SRC president Elisha Mogala said there were serious allegations of corruption at VUT and even some staff members had not been paid their salaries.
“We asked the administrator to investigate allegations that NSFAS funding was redirected to pay wages of workers. Meanwhile students are expected to write their exams even though they don’t have resources. Students are suffering and unfortunately we don’t have freedom of speech,” he said.
VUT spokesperson Kediemetsi Mokotsi said allowances for approved NSFAS funded students were processed on April 16 for April and the May food allowances and learning materials were processed last week Friday.
“The last batch was paid on Monday and SMSes were sent directly to students' cellphones by the finance department. There has been delays in payment of learning materials because the institution was waiting for information of students who applied for laptops and payment had to be done in line with the NSFAS funding criteria,” she said.
She said students can follow up directly with NSFAS if they are not on the funded list. “Staff members are not paid with NSFAS funds. Upon receiving the funds they are invested and earmarked, [and] withdrawn when the financial aid office is going to make payments for NSFAS allowances. University salaries are paid from council-controlled funds,” she said.
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