East London-based Buffalo City Metro has handed over full bursaries to 46 students to further their tertiary education studies. The Mayoral Bursary Fund is aimed at helping learners in the scarce fields like Engineering, Finance, Computer Science and Planning & Economic Services.
Nineteen of the beneficiaries are new recipients while 27 were funded from previous years.
Executive Mayor, Xola Phakathi says this forms part of their skills development programs.
“We are intervening as the municipality in the education space to give bursaries to those matriculants who passed their exams with flying colours. We are doing this with the sole purpose of increasing the skills base of the metro because those students upon completion of their degrees, they will plough back into the city and we will have levelled skills based which will then help us in providing services to the people of the city.”
One beneficiary, Ayabonga Vazi says this bursary has brought much needed relief for her family.
“It’s going to cut lots of things because my family does not get paid enough to support me in varsity and do everything for me and yet they have to support the family. We live in a family of three and the other kidsare still in school, so it would be a challenge to support me and them. Varsity fees are very expensive, so this bursary means a lot to me and I’m very proud of myself. There are many people that applied and I was very fortunate.”
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