Students 'starved of halaal food'

Muslim students at Stellenbosch University have said the institution's management has no regard for the strictures of their religious diet after the last halaal food vendor on the main campus was shut down.

Said a student who asked not to be named: "They are under the impression that places that don't sell pork are halaal, but that is not the case. Stalls need the appropriate halaal certification."

Now a march is planned this afternoon to "voice the opinions" of the university's "most marginalised" student body .

Students said they had made "countless" appeals to management for at least one halaal stall in the Neelsie campus student mall.

Three new food stalls have opened there since the beginning of the year, none of them halaal.

A student said the recently closed King Pie vendor was the only restaurant that served halaal foods, other than the halaal kitchen at Metanoia residence.

Said a student: "We are sometimes forced to choose between our religion and our health because the quality of the food at Metanoia is questionable. Students have been complaining for a long time."

Though the Islamic Society of Stellenbosch University was not involved in the march, its chairman Tashriq Pandy, said the society has been negotiating tenders for halaal stalls with the university management for more than two years.

There are 447 Muslim students at Stellenbosch University.

University spokesman Martin Viljoen said the new deli at the "new generation residence" also caters for the needs of Muslim students. The Neelsie management was initiating negotiations with potential halaal shop tenants.

Viljoen said: "Opening a shop is, however, dependent on finding the necessary space with due cognisance of the lease agreements of current tenants.

''Any food outlet will have to be commercially viable."