The Universities of Limpopo and Venda have cautioned students to remain vigilant against scammers during the 2024 registration period. First-year students and parents are sometimes scammed at institutions of higher learning during this time.
University of Venda spokesperson, Dr. Takalani Dzaga, says that they have beefed up online security following a registration scam by a staff member last year.
Apparently, a staff member swindled first-time students, promising them admissions.
Dzaga says they don’t want students to be the victims.
“Towards the end of last year, we issued a statement cautioning prospective students not to be victims of the scams and we continue to discourage our prospective students, including parents and guardians, from being very cautious. It is for this reason that we have a team of colleagues in the protection services department who are ensuring that our students are safe on and off campus.”
University of Limpopo registrar, Kwena Masha, says they have also beefed-up security to protect the prospective students.
“We have beefed up our security to ensure that we don’t have disruptions and we don’t create the impression that we are providing a service here on campus. It is very important and maybe the other thing I need to say is that our returning students started with their classes just yesterday, so they also need to be very safe when they are on campus.”
Meanwhile, last week, Higher Education Deputy Minister Buti Manamela called on students whose NSFAS applications have been approved to be vigilant on campuses.
This comes as universities struggle under the weight of first-year applications. The University of Johannesburg has received more than 600 000 first-year applications, while Wits University has over 140 000 applications.
The institutions say they simply don’t have enough space available.
Higher Education | Lack of space at universities
Report by Rendani Raliphaswa
