Late payments of financial allowances continue to frustrate some students at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein. They have not received their allowances for July from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Some say they have been evicted by their landlords due to the late payments from the previous months. Others have resorted to going back home.
The students are worried that they could face academic exclusion if the situation persists.
The NSFAS beneficiaries say they struggle to get their food, transport, and accommodation allowances.
“I don’t have money to pay rent so I think today my landlord will knock on my door, they gonna kick me out, they will turn off lights and water. So I might have no place to sleep tonight that’s how I’m affected,” one student told SABC News.
“My question is now that Fundi does not recognise me as a student how am I gonna survive because there are issues of transport, there’s rent money there’s a lot of things not all of us are Bloem children,” adds another.
“We’re frustrated, we don’t have money to pay rent, no money for food and now we are going towards exams we’re really frustrated so we need clarity.”
Students are calling for the university management to sort out all their challenges.
“Some students have not been able to register because of incorrect marks, that are not fixed on time so that’s our issue,” one student says.
“We request the management to allocate data to every student not only NSFAS but all of us.”
The student representative council says it will fight tooth and nail for all deserving students to be funded.
“The issue of the student governance in this institution is not in a right condition for students because now students are exploited in this campus, we as the SRC have communicated with the management in various meetings, the council, but yet they are trying to oppress us because they are taking us for granted,” says EFF Student Command president, Bongani Bolawa.
University management has released a statement, promising that all outstanding payments will be processed.
