Academic activities were disrupted on Thursday at the Jouberton, North West campus of Vuselela College as students embarked on a protest over unpaid National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) contributions.
Students blocked entrances to the campus and disrupted academic activities forcing the Vuselela management to assure them that their grants would be paid on or before Saturday.
Student Registration and Financial Aid Services Assistant Director at the College Augustine AU said the majority of the affected students will be paid over the weekend.
“The college has so far uploaded close to 80% of students that are appearing on the funded list , the remainder are those that still have submissions to make, allowance forms with all supporting documents,” she said.
Au said the college will continue to upload as they get an updated funding list from the NSFAS.
“During my discussion with NSFAS, it has indicated that the next payment will probably run on the 25 March 2023 and will be in that manner on a monthly basis. They [NSFAS] are currently finalising the vetting and consolidation of the college data”.
The striking students said they have not received any NSFAS grants since the start of the financial year and were now starving. SRC president Nhlanhla Nazo was adamant that no classes would take place until the money was paid to the students.
“No class will resume, no negotiations until NSFAS money reflects, the problem is not with NSFAS but the college because they did not submit the information that NSFAS needed. They also missed the deadline to submit that information on March 10, if they had submitted it on time, this could have not happened,” he said.
Over the past few weeks, students at Wits and University of Cape Town took to the streets over issues with NSFAS while in the North West academic activities have been halted at Taletso Tvet College in Zeerust where students are demanding better conditions.
