Students promise to protest until problems are resolved

Protesting students at the University of Venda say they will not return to classes until money they are being owed, are paid.

The situation at Univen was chaotic from the beginning of the week with a total shut-down effected in the whole campus. Services came to a complete halt as from Monday, with classes suspended.

At the time of going to press, barricades, burning tyres and other rubble effectively closed the road leading to the institution. The students’ dissatisfaction apparently lies in the awarding of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) stipends, which they say was being deliberately delayed by officials at the university.

The protesting students said they would not go back to classes and they would make sure that the university does not run until their demands were met.

Since Monday, the angry students were having a stand-off with police who fired rubber bullets and teargas to disperse the students who were barricading the main road leading to the university and throwing stones at the police. From early morning, students had started gathering at strategic points and a large group could be seen at the park next to the Khoroni Hotel. They were throwing bottles and stones to police who had given them some few minutes to disperse, which they did not do as they said they were there peacefully.

Time and again police fired rubber bullets and the group retreated, only to regroup a short while later. Nearby were police diverting traffic not to take the Univen road. Just opposite the hotel were Univen staff and their cars. They stood helpless as they could not pass to the campus.

Marude Secondary School pupils in their uniforms could be seen mingling with the university students. “We will not go back to classes. We are hungry and university officials seem not to care. We cannot afford to buy food as we do not have money. Our parents know that we have been funded by NSFAS and when we tell them we do not have food they start thinking that we are robbing them,” some of the students said.

The students also indicated issues of security and the absorption of workers to the university who are employed on contract. “We are very worried about the security situation on campus. Recently a student was raped and another was robbed of his belongings just outside campus. These issues should be resolved first and then we can go back to classes,” one of the students said.

Meanwhile NSFAS blamed the university for not submitting the names of the students timeously. Mr Victor Rambau, who is the head of Transformation and Business Enablement at NSFAS, said they only work as per files received from the different institutions. “In the case of Univen, we only received the forms last Friday and we started processing the requests. So far many have been processed and we hope to be done with this at the end of the week,” he said.

Univen spokesperson, Mr Takalani Dzaga confirmed that the situation had not changed at the university. He said they had had a meeting with students and NSFAS officials where students indicated they would not go back until their stipends were paid. He further indicated that the security issue the university has had, strides to that effect. “We have a control room and cameras installed at strategic points to monitor activities on campus. Concerning the absorption of staff, we have started with security staff already absorbed. With the other workers, we should wait for contracts to lapse with the companies before we can start with the process,” he said.

Dzaga further appealed to students to give NSFAS and the university an opportunity to do their work to avoid an unnecessary waste of academic time.

Limpopo police spokesperson, Lt Col Moatshe Ngoepe said the situation was quiet on Wednesday. He said that the police have arrested four students and they were charged with inciting public violence.

Date:30 March 2017

By: Elmon Tshikhudo

Elmon Tshikhudo started off as a photographer. He developed an interest in writing and started submitting articles to local as well as national publications. He became part of the Limpopo Mirror family in 2005 and was a permanent part of the news team until 2019.

Read: 2017