Student demand for state to pay their rent via NSFAS shuts TUT down

Tshwane University of Technology management got caught by surprise by a student protest that erupted this morning.

Professor Stanley Mukhola‚ university's deputy vice-chancellor: teaching‚ learning and technology‚ told reporters the protest started without prior notice about grievances.

“We're all caught by surprise by our students who decided to close our gates without informing us what the problems are‚” said Mukhola.

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“At about 5am I received a call from one of our bus directors [asking] 'look we have tyres burning‚ what do we do?'. I said no‚ stop the buses. What can we do?

“By then nobody knew what's the problem. These young people just decided overnight that they are going to close the gate‚” said Mukhola.

“Normally they'll come to us‚ we'll sit and talk and solve all the problems. But this morning we don't know what actually went wrong."

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Students‚ mainly members of the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress (Sasco)‚ shut down TUT's main campus in Pretoria west.

They burnt tyres in its main entrance‚ blocking everyone from entering. A number of police monitored the situation from outside the campus.

Students not part of the protest waited outside the campus‚ until they eventually left.

Mukhola said as far as he knew there were no outstanding issues between students and management.

“I can assure you we solved all issues that were raised last year. We've got memoranda to prove that‚” Mukhola said.

“We don't run away when they've got issues. We sit with them until we find a solution. That's our approach.”

But the Sasco members maintained they are up in arms over old issues.

Their main gripe was that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme funds allocated to TUT do not cover rent of students staying in private residences near the campus.

This left many funded students without proper accommodation.

TUT does not have residences for all its students.

“Students … get NSFAS but don't get residences. It is evident that NSFAS in TUT does not pay for private accommodation‚” said their memorandum of demands.

- TMG Digital/SowetanLIVE