Entrance to the TUT main campus where students were protesting in March this year. Picture: Jacques Naude African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - Student leadership at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) remains adamant that gates at the university’s campuses will remain closed until Higher Education Minister Dr Blade Nzimande addresses the delayed payment of student allowances.
As protest action continued to disrupt the academic project at the university for a third day, the Campus Student Representative Council (CSRC) said it would only budge once they had an audience with the minister to provide clarity on the direct payment system implemented by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Keamogetswe Masike, the CSRC president, said although student leaders had a meeting with the executive officials at the university to try to work out a way forward on the issue, no real solution had come up.
Masike said that as a result, the gates of the university would remain closed until the minister came to deal with the matter personally.
The student leader said that even though they had a meeting with a delegation from the scheme on June 30, there had been no further communication with them about the delayed payments to students or issues raised surrounding the use of the eZaga third-party financial service provider.
The student leadership rejected the use of the eZaga online digital banking service over failure to pay student meal allowances due to more than 14 000 students for June and July, despite the academic programme being in full swing.
NSFAS spokesperson Slumezi Skosana did not respond to questions regarding the payment delays and issues surrounding the new direct payment system.
Yesterday, Skosana said they were due to have a meeting with student leaders regarding their issues; however, Masike said they had yet to hear from the scheme.
The Star
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