Dozens of East Midlands TVET college students in Makhanda, Eastern Cape, have been left stranded after they were evicted by their private landlords for failing to pay for accommodation.
The students have not received their National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) allowances since the start of this academic calendar which resulted in evictions from a private residence.
Out in the cold with nowhere to go and no food to eat, they allege that for the past three months they have been paying rent out of their pockets. But the burden is unbearable.
“We are here because we have nowhere to go. We have been evicted by our landlords from the houses where we were renting. So now we are here to talk to our campus manager for him to help us with the accommodation,” says a student.
“We are facing a problem of NSFAS. We did not get NSFAS the whole semester. The semester is about to end and we have no money. We have to rent each and every month, but we cannot rent because we do not have any money,” says another student.
NSFAS funding systems for the 2021 academic year: Kagisho Mamabolo
Institution to house students
Meanwhile, the institution says it has made a commitment to house the students until the issue is resolved.
“We said to them they must come in so that we check their individual cases and with no luck in trying to remedy that but as an institution, we had committed to them that no one will be stranded and no one will be sleeping outside or whatsoever. The institution has committed to assist the students in the best possible way so that they’re safe,” says Students Support Services, Lithemba Busakhwe.
Accusations of mismanagement at NSFAS
