The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Council at TUT has rejected the proposal by the South African Union of Students (SAUS) and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), led by Minster Naledi Pandor, for off campus students to receive one meal a day.
The DHET and SAUS met on Sunday 17 March to discuss NSFAS allowances and outstanding registration challenges among other issues. The purpose of the meeting was also to receive feedback concerning challenges that students are currently experiencing. These challenges include student debt, withheld academic transcripts, NSFAS allowances, postgraduate funding, registration and student entrepreneurship.
TUT Soshanguve Economic Freedom Fighters Student Council (EFFSC) deputy chairperson and former SRC member, Mr Myza Baloi, said the policy of students receiving one meal a day has been existing in other universities and students in TUT cannot just copy what happens in other institutions.
“How can you say that students must compromise and receive one meal a day? So you’re saying that students will only eat once in a day and they won’t eat on weekends because TUT doesn’t have academic activities in the school during weekends.”
Mr Baloi went on to ask how students will excel academically on a hungry stomach. “What if we receive that meal around 13:00, will I survive from 08:00 in the morning until afternoon without eating anything?
“SAUS is not doing a good job in representing us. I don’t know if it’s because they benefit from the government or not. We sent them to clearly state our cry on meal allowances for off-campus students and if they are failing to represent us fully, we will go to the ground. That is the only thing the DHET and the management will understand,” said Mr Baloi.
According to SAUS Spokesperson, Mr Thabo Shingange, studies have revealed that SA students are among the most vulnerable to food insecurity. “Poor students often go hungry and are unable to perform well academically. As a principle, we have agreed with the DHET that no student should go to bed hungry.” said Mr Shingange.
He said the only hunger student should experience is the hunger for knowledge. “Through engagements with the DHET and universities, systems will be set up to ensure that students residing off-campus receive at least one meal a day. The model used at the University of Cape Town (UCT) will be used to benchmark this process,” he said.
SAUS and DHET also discussed the issue of transport allowances for students residing off-campus. “Students who live within a 30 km radius of a university do not qualify for the NSFAS living and meal allowance. However, they are provided with transport allowance which is often not sufficient to cover transport expenses for off-campus students.” said Mr Shingange.
The Department will further embark on a nationwide engagement with student leaders that will focus on improving and amending this policy provision. “SAUS in co-operation with our SRCs will be providing a detailed database to the DHET, of students who have not received their allowances,” explained Mr Shingange.
He said universities are also in a process to accredit further accommodation options so that students who have not found adequate housing can utilize their allowances for accommodation.
Mr Shingange said the 2019 registration period has been marred with various challenges after the call for national protest on the 6th of February 2019. “This call was made because thousands of students again were not allowed to register.
“Because of this call and intervention, a sizeable number of students have since been able to register, however, we acknowledge that there are still many students outside of the system as such we urge universities to extend the registration period by at least two weeks.
SAUS will be engaging with Universities South Africa (USAF) to facilitate this process.”
Mr Shingange said SAUS is confident with the progress that has been made thus far in relation to the above issues.
“We must commend SRCs for their continuous support and commitment to uplift our students’ lives. SAUS will be visiting those institutions who are still experiencing difficulties to provide whatever assistance necessary. We wish all students a successful academic year,” he concluded.
TUT Soshanguve student, Ms Tinyiko Maluleke, said she is not happy with the NSFAS’ new policy of excluding off-campus students from receiving meal allowances and providing little transport allowances.
“How are we going to survive without meal allowances? Who is going to pay for our food expenses? Getting one meal a day is not enough and this is stressing because majority of us depend on NSFAS for tuition, accommodation, transport and meal allowances”, said Ms Maluleke.
She said she sometimes uses the transport allowance to add on her rent.
“Where I stay, my rent is more than R500 monthly, some months are tough as my family cannot keep up with the rent amount so I sometimes add that R275 to cover up rent money,” noted Ms Maluleke.
