University of Venda puts shocking twist on ‘cram college’
Student 'squatters' pay to share Univen's crowded rooms and run-down bathrooms
Some of Limpopo's future teachers, lawyers and scientists are living in squalor, squatting in inhumane conditions in a prefabricated hostel at the University of Venda.
Lack of accommodation for almost 10,000 students means up to seven students are sharing some rooms meant for two, with more than 100 women having to share five toilets and four showers.
The 31 double rooms and one single room in each of the hostel's six blocks, which were meant to accommodate 63 students at most, are home to more than 200 students.
Meanwhile, two incomplete residences stand empty, abandoned by contractors five months ago.Sleeping on the floor
The Sunday Times spoke to six women from Mpumalanga who share a room in Block P4.
The four "squatters" pay the two legal occupants R400 a month for the privilege. They said this was common.
While two of the squatters sleep on sagging mattresses on two beds, the other two sleep on blankets on the floor.
One of them, a second-year student who is studying to become a teacher, said there was no privacy because male students also used their bathrooms.
"The guys come and bathe here, which is not good. We don't feel comfortable because they come here as they please."
The university provides accommodation for 2,200 students in several residences on campus, and a further 1,400 beds off the campus are offered by private service providers accredited by the university.Just under 10,000 students still need accommodation.
In Block P3, only one of the four urinals and three of the four toilets are working.
The entrances to the five shower cubicles, four of which are working, are shielded by black or green plastic sheeting and offer very little privacy.
Some of the showers leak constantly."Officially we don't allow squatting but we know it happens. If you kick these kids out of residence and we know there's no other accommodation around here, what's going to happen to them?"
He said an 1,800-bed facility under construction was expected to be ready early next year.
Commenting on the halted construction of the 320-bed residence for women and 314-bed residence for men that were originally meant to cost R135-million, he said the contractors had abandoned the project because they had "underpriced" it.
It will cost the university a further R38-million to complete the construction of both residences...
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