Black students sick of life in UCT backpackers' hostel

16 February 2016 - 02:32 By Jerome Cornelius

Black university students who have been housed in a backpackers' hostel for three weeks feel slighted, but UCT insists that the housing situation is an administrative problem, and not based on race. In protest, a shack was erected on campus yesterday close to the old site of the Cecil John Rhodes statue.#RhodesMustFall, the student movement responsible for the protests, sang and burned litter in a bid to highlight the crisis.UCT spokesman Elijah Moholola said: "UCT rejects completely the accusation by #RhodesMustFall movement that we are seeking to exclude students from accommodation on the basis of race. "It is the very action of #RhodesMustFall movement in interfering with operations at UCT that compounded the accommodation issue."The shack was bedecked with posters that poked fun at the recent racial diatribes on social media that said: "Beware of monkeys" and "Beware of the dogs".Other posters read: "The state of your nation", or "We want our land" and "Reality of millions".The 108 students housed in the hostel claim they had applied for rooms and were promised a spot.Speaking anonymously, one third-year student from Mpumalanga said: "I don't think this is a suitable study environment. You're in a room with six other people."I don't want to speak on behalf of #RhodesMustFall movement, but it's convenient that it's only black students who are here."Moholola said deferred exams resulting from last year's protests had meant 700 beds to be released in early January were not...

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