The students want all off-campus accommodation to decrease prices.
When the University of Mpumalanga closed their semester last year it was rocked with violent protests…
But seemingly this year the troubles at the newly built university are set continue.
The whole of 2018 the University of Mpumalanga had classes disrupted because of protest over alleged managerial corruption and nepotism.
This week Monday (4 Mar) saw angry students closing gates at the Mbombela campus, demanding management attend to the high accommodation prices.
They say they live outside campus and are expected to pay both transport and accommodation costs.
“Only those living at their homes are provided with a transport allowance. We need NSFAS to allocate an allowance for those residing in private accommodation,” the students told local media.
Management said they did meet with transport providers as well as student leaders over the issue.
“The service providers said they needed to be addressed by someone from NSFAS and we had agreed to make arrangements for that meeting,” dean for student affairs Dr Paul Maminza told Mpumalanga News.
“Our finance jurisdiction is contacting NSFAS. For now they said they will not be able to bring students to the campus without being paid,” Maminza said.
“We don’t understand why the students decided to lock the gates because this matter is above our strength as an institution,” he said.
“This delays the process of the building of another accommodation block which upon its completion would be able to house 219 students. The block was supposed to be completed by January but due to the last year’s protest it was delayed,” he added.
(edited by MLM)
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