Parents of students who attended Damelin College at the Braamfontein campus, an educational institution under the jurisdiction of the Educor, allege that the institution defrauded them.
This came after the college allegedly refused to refund them following the institution’s deregistration by former higher education and training minister Dr Blade Nzimande.
Nzimande deregistered Educor institutions due to failure to submit their annual financial statements and tax clearance certificates for the 2021 and 2022 years as proof of their financial viability.
However, recently the department announced that all of Educor’s educational institutions should be reopened, with no administrative requirements other than the submission of continuous, monthly reports for a period of six months, according to the department.
This came after the restoration of registration by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane.
Re-registration with limitations
The four Educor-owned higher education institutions — Damelin, City Varsity, ICESA City Campus, and Lyceum — were permitted to re-register with some limitations.
Selloane Maseko, a mother to one of the students who was studying information technology at the Damelin, Braamfontein campus, said before the minister announced that the institutions were deregistered, she heard that the school’s computers were attached.
Maseko told Sunday World that she paid about R35 000 because she wanted to be ahead of the monthly installments.
“To ensure my child’s education, I paid that amount upfront because the course was R46 000 annually,” said Maseko.
“When the minister deregistered them, I went there to request my refund, and they promised we would be paid.
“They have since changed the tune and are saying we are breaching a contract, so there won’t be a refund.”
Maseko alleged that Educor has been avoiding their calls.
“When we call them, they take us from pillar to post. The institution has frustrated us; our children are frustrated and are sitting at home with no hope for a better future.
“I feel scammed. I wasted my money, and my child spent yet another year not doing anything to better his life.”
I am done with private colleges
Another parent, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they blame the government for the limited space in public institutions because they would not have to resort to private education.
“This is a hard thing to experience, both as a parent and a student. I am done with private colleges,” said the parent.
“Damelin was good back in the day. I do not know what went wrong. Maybe there is a new management that changed everything. All we want is our refund because they failed to give our children an education.”
The department’s director-general, Nkosinathi Sishi, said despite being allowed to fully reopen, the educator is still expected to provide monthly reports and financial statements for six months.
“What we are concerned about is a simple compliance issue. They now have a provisional permit to operate, and we will review it after six months,” said Sishi.
Educor had not responded to Sunday World’s questions by the time of publication. The company’s response will be included in the story when it does so.
We have not been paid for the past 3 months as employees, I am about to loose my house. I habe not been at work since the beginning of september since im atruggling with making ends meet, Im struggling to get another job under this economy. It is ao tough
The minister of education needs to urgently review educors financial statements as they are clearly showing they are not viable to operate with basic resources, educor has not paid staff for the past 3 months, not paying electricity, not paying security, abruptly closing down campuses and leaving students in the dark, students are now told they need to travel far off to write exams at the other remaining campuses with no help or assistance for traveling after paying huge amounts for fees, especially to have face to face classes and then told it’s all online class, with half the classes not happening due to lecturers not being paid, we have no assistance as there’s no staff at the campuses, no one answers calls, how are we supposed to pass this year, how is the minister allowing such treatment that we getting from educor
I am one of the parents who are frustrated because as am speaking we haven’t received the results of 1st semester without getting any explanation but they a demanding us to pay the fees every month.
same here they are holding back results.
Educor is a real scam. I have been struggling to get my refund since February. I have completed all the necessary forms but they are not responding besides indicating that the turn around time is 90 days. My child had a year wasted.
I.paid also R48 000 for the whole year at Damelin. I.uave ceen making followup regarding my refund. To-date no one.has refunded me I had several meetings with.Damelon Brooklyn GM, I really.need assistance to get my.moneyback.
How is the minister of education accepting educor destroying students life’s, money wasted, time wasted, this private institution is a scam
I am one of the former lecturers at Damelin who u until today remains unpaid from 2023 to 2024. Damelin officials know about me: Mpofu, Candarale, Delene, Renier Robinson, Bavna, Pradia, Jasper Zimber, CEO, and COO.
They are ignoring my e-mails.
I agree they are scamming us. Even though I pay on time, they send threats of blacklisting me. I had to compile all proofs of payment and get a lawyer to tell them I will sue them.they blamed it oon their automated computer replies .
I canceled and requested a refund, but they called me every to say I owe them. Damelin must just close for every. They say if I don’t pay my kid fees they will blacklist or put a note of default on my credit record.
The are scammers and Department of Higher Education must just stop them from operating full stop. This affected our kids future and our financial.
Staff are tortured. Who at the Department of Higher Education is being bribed. My child was given a mutual seperation agreement. My child didn’t even have time to read it properly and was forced to sign. To date he has not received his salary for August or his leave pay and notice pay. He has lost his car and he can’t even go to interviews as he doesn’t have taxi fare. But they fraudulently supply uif documents that state they have fully paid staff. They even fraudulently load pay slips every month but have not paid staff from July. There are many many staff in this situaton and even though they haven’t been paid for almost 3 months they are being threatened to come into work. People have no food, they are in debt they are losing everything because of this company. Why is the department of education not investigating. Have they opened them to take more people’s money as clearly they not trying to fix any of their current problems. The department must be held responsible for all the staff as well as the students not being able to finish their studies. This is not humanitarian. This is like the mafia they seem to have control of the department.
Been waiting for a refund since 2021. They should be audited forced to pay their staff and refunds and shut down
Hello
What is the process to be refunded or moved to another institution
Damelin closed down after 1 year of starting a 2 year diploma in credit management.
I never receive assignment marks, it was not marked and was given incomplete results.
This is robbery
I am also waiting for a R20 000.00 refund which was paid my company. I have been trying to get my refund since March this year. The matter is currently with Legal Wise whom have been sending e-mails to Damelin Randburg campus and no one wants to take accountability. DHET was requested to intervene in this matter but to my surprise DHET says the matter is out of their jurisdiction. Damelin is a real scam and I wish they can shut down for good because they can’t even afford to maintain their campuses and pay their staff. Their Randburg campus looks like a slum.
I enrolled in Sep last year and paid in full R22050 for the course l wanted no results ,no refund,no communications just a walking zombi who doesn’t know what’s happening or going to happen .We need urgent assistance from the DOE .Damelin is a scam no one responds to emails ,on calls you sent from AB….Z and airtime is expensive
Yoh Damelin, start paying, you taking students money and doing what with it, renovations as hommi to scam more people. Seems like the education sector is doomed for educor and they stealing students money investing in hommi and scamming more people, you not refunding people hard earned money, you not paying staff, you not giving the service to students, how is the department okay with this, definitely someone is being bribed, has the minister spoken to actually students before reinstating registration and allowing educor to steal more students money
Something wrong serious I was a student at damelin braamfontein I was waiting certificate of administrator august 2024 until today
I was also schooling at Central Technical College Durban there’s been lack of staff,security guards and cleaners national tests even got postponed. There is just so much going on I also took the step to deregister also our plant operation marks came back with MR MISSING MARK we were told to register for rewrite but what’s funny is that this has happened before another student wrote 3 times but still the marks came back missing.
I worked at Damelin and Intec Correspondence College from 2021-2022. It was the worst job of my entire life. It’s 2024 and I still carry emotional scars of working there. Staff were blamed for every single thing that went wrong. Warnings were dished out like toilet paper. We were given a system that wasn’t useful for the purpose of the company. We had too little people doing huge amounts of work which needed triple the amount of people. And everything was done manually. It was like counting on your fingers. And who suffers most – the students. While working there I always said the place should just burn to the ground. That’s how aweful it was.
I worked at Lyceum. Worst decision to take a job offer there. The environment was toxic. Management think they are God’s. Staff was over worked & under paid with no sign of an increase. They I’ll treated staff & expected them to not do anything. Victimisation was the order of the day. As a former staff member, I can confidently say, they will not refund you because they misused funds. Stay away from Educor institutions
I was doing a 3 years course with the school and
And already paid R28000, now after requesting for a refund the send me a letter that I’m in arrears of R18000 ,the school is in breach of its own contract by not compliying with department requirements which let the school to situation therefore let’s stand together a fighter against the school legally in court.
I was a student in Damelin doing a Dploma in Finacial Accounting via Bursary at work. My institution paid for my fees of R32 000. I have passed 11 modules and the last modules I wrote the exam and they didn’t send me my result. I have been sending emails with no respond and when I call they are ignoring the calls. I have paid back my Institution R32 000 back because I can not produce the results. I feel scammed from my hard earned cash. Department of Education must do something
I’m also having a dental office administration certificate from intec college which bears me no fruits , when i apply with this certificate im told it’s not valid nor hav no credits. Where must me report this matter because as I’m contacting the college I’m getting no response. If the dhet doesn’t intervene like one brother said here on the comments were will we go to sort out these issues. Intec ate my bursary money.
I was/am at Damelin pmb. They abruptly closed their doors and forced students to write exams in Durban which is 85km away from where they registered. We were refused a refund. We were further advised of final semester exams DP exams one week in advance. No time to prepare or plan for travel. It’s almost 400 per day via car there and back just to write an exam. X that by 4 papers that’s 1600. Where do we get this money from. Still no compensation or refund. We need help. There are so many students stuck in this dilemma here in PMB.
When Damelin was deregistered in March , we were lucky enough to find a place for our son elsewhere to complete his studies . Damelin not only refuses to pay us back the deposit , but refuse to accept his deregistration . They keep phoning us for outstanding fees for classes he never attended . It’s gotten to the point now where they want to hand us over for a judgement . Such a scam .