The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) bursary is awarded to victims of injustices such as violence and human rights abuse that occurred during Apartheid, as well as, dependents of the indentified TRC victims.
Students who are beneficiaries of the TRC bursary have made allegations of mismanagement of funds against Damelin College in Pietermaritzburg.
The TRC bursary programme pays money to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) every year for each student and these amounts include accommodation fees, meals, transportation and books. The institutions are expected to deduct tuition fees and refund the balance of this to students.
Recently Wits University has said it will be also refunding its students, because the 2020 academic year had been disrupted by the pandemic.
Three students whose family members died due to political violence in Mooi River between the 1980s and 1990s are recipients of the TRC bursary. Two of these students have accused the Pietermaritzburg branch of Damelin College of stealing the money that is due to them.
Nokwanda Ndlovu, a second year Human Resource Management student said last week they had to travel to Pietermaritzburg from Mooi River to stage a demonstration at the institution’s offices demanding that they receive their refunds.
She said about R87 000 was deposited by NSFAS to the college but the college had not said anything about this until she contacted the financial aid scheme directly.
“The college failed to inform us that they received the money until we had to contact NSFAS and learnt that the money was paid to the college months before.
“At first they denied that they received the money but made an about-turn after learning that I called NSFAS,” said Ndlovu.
After the college was pressured to refund the students they made a payment of R20 000 in October with an additional R10 000 paid to Ndlovu. She had however not received the remaining R21 000 that was due to her.
“I have been calling the head office but there are no answers as to why we are not receiving the rest of the money,” she said.
Another student, Nomvelo Langa a first year in Public Management said that about R97 000 was paid to the institution by NSFAS and that only R33 000 in tuition fees should be deducted and the balance should have been returned to her. However the college said that she could only receive the refund in three months.
“I also received the first payment but it was not what we had agreed upon, we expected a lump sum of the remaining amount because even though we had been at home due to Covid-19, we still needed to pay full rental for accommodation,”
“Each time we follow up with the college we are being sent from pillar to post," said Langa.
The students were informed by the Durban office that the third bursary recipient had received their outstanding amount because of the pressure received by a family member that was politically connected. This caused the other two to go to the college's offices to demand their refunds.
The Sunday Tribune put the allegations to the Education Investment Corporation Limited (Educor), a private tertiary education provider which owns Damelin.
Chief operating officer, Michael Thurley said the matter was being investigated and he would respond in due course.
Nomvelo Langa quickly received a deposit of over R27 000 from the college afterwards.
Dr Randall Carolissen, NSFAS administrator said the organisation could not reveal the amount paid to the two students but confirmed that Damelin debits student’s tuition accounts then refunds credit to the student for applicable allowances such as private accommodation, meals, travel and books.
“NSFAS has engaged the institution to further assist these students on the matter of refunds for their applicable allowances as per registration data submitted by the institution,” he said.
