Students at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University (SMU) in Pretoria have embarked on protest action as they have not received tuition, book and meal allowances since the beginning of the academic year.
Student Representative Council (SRC) president Thato Masekoa confirmed to IOL that students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) have not received any allowances (tuition, meals and books) from the scheme since January.
He said the protest action began yesterday after the scheme failed to provide students with allowances for the entire three months. The hungry and frustrated students blocked the university gates and said they would not move until their grievances were addressed.
He said the university hired private security to monitor their protest and they have allegedly assaulted some of the protesting students. “It’s actually sad and heartbreaking that security is hired because we have been waiting for the allowances since January. Students are hungry,” he said.
Masekoa said the management has been feeding them empty promises since January but nothing has been done to date.
He said the matter was receiving the management’s attention and they would wait until the management communicated.
“SMU students have not received their allowances since the beginning (of the year), and the resolution of the meeting held with the affected NSFAS students and the SRC remains intact,” the SRC said.
Meanwhile, NSFAS confirmed in a statement that it had resolved most of the outstanding matters from 2022 with universities and payment will be forthcoming.
“NSFAS has received registration data from universities and will be making payments against this data by April 7,” the statement said.
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