Students at the University of Witwatersrand have resorted to sleeping at the university library after being evicted from their residences due to unpaid fees.
Boipelo Setsepu, the Student Representative Council (SRC) deputy president, said they had also received 28 complaints from students facing eviction.
He said the issue primarily affected students previously funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme but who had since lost their funding after failing to meet academic progression requirements.
“The issue of accommodation is challenging mostly postgraduates because their sole reliance is on hardship accommodation and it can only accommodate 330 students.
“You must understand that it does not only accommodate postgraduate students but also undergraduate students.
“The option that postgraduate students have when they do not have funding is to either stay at a Wits residence or stay at a hardship accommodation but staying at Wits means you will accumulate debt and most of them struggle with funding.”
He also pointed out another issue: the university separates postgraduate residences from undergraduates. Setsepu urged the university to allow postgraduate students access to undergraduate residences.
Tlhompo Thogomusi, chairperson of the EFF at Wits, said they had been trying to engage with the SRC on accommodation issues but a viable solution had yet to be found.
In its memorandum of demands, the EFF called for all returning students who had initially received residence offers but were later revoked to be reinstated and provided them with hardship accommodation.
“Wits residents must be allowed to pay the accommodation fee of the residence they applied for or that of the alternative residence if it is less than the one initially applied for.
“CHRL (a division of student affairs) must publish the reason for the exorbitant pricing of accommodation, failing which, all residence pricing must remain stagnant until such information is provided or reduce all residence pricing to meet the NSFAS cap on accommodation,” reads the memorandum in part.
