Management at the University of Limpopo attributes the late payment of state-funded housing allowances to both tenants' and landlords' failure to submit signed leases.
This comes after a violent protest by off-campus students who are beneficiaries of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) broke out at the institution on Wednesday.
Following the aftermath, the South African Union of Students (SAUS) says that this is not the case, as the University as well as NSFAS bear the contractual responsibility to ensure that students receive their allowances on time.
The Union’s spokesperson, Asive Dlanjwa, explains that this is particularly the case for the university when it comes to the disbursement of the NSFAS allowance.
NSFAS is contractually obligated to ensure that the students are funded and that they receive the allowances on time to ensure that they're able to participate in the academic process. Secondly, although we disagree that it should be the case, it is the responsibility of the universities to disperse these allowances on time.
Dlanjwa adds that as a union they disagree with the current structure of the NSFAS allowance disbursement process due to how it often results in delays, which in turn leads to protest action.
The student union is of the view that the universities are incompetent when it comes to upholding this responsibility.
“There appears to be serious incompetences from the as part of the university is concerned the university accepted the responsibility from NSFAS that they would go and accredit student accommodation upon which they have accredited them.” he further explains
According to the SAUS, the accreditation will then ensure that the landlords can place students in accredited student accommodation and they will then pay for that off-campus accommodation.
