TVET students shut down campuses in Kimberley over financial exclusion
STUDENTS from the Moremogolo and Phatsimang TVET campuses in Kimberley have vowed to continue with their protest action for the entire week should management not respond to their grievances.
Students from the two campuses on Tuesday abandoned their classes to protest against the financial exclusion of some students and the alleged mismanagement of the Northern Cape Urban TVET College.
The students said they are standing in solidarity with other higher education institutions across the country that are fighting against financial exclusion.
“The issue of education should not be viewed as a privilege for some, but it is a human right for all,” the students said.
“We have drafted a memorandum, where we have called for the historic debt of students to be scrapped. It is unfair that some students have to drop out of tertiary learning because of debt. This hampers the futures of many young people and also adds to the ever-increasing number of unemployed.
“There are some students who have received their allowances but there are still students who are waiting. There is no indication on when their allowances will be paid. We cannot leave those students behind.
“Government also needs to relook at the manner of how it pays the allowances. It would make more sense to pay the allowances into the accounts of the students.”
The students also accused the student representative council (SRC) of failing in its duties.
“The SRC has never been there for us since we have started with these protests. We do not even know who the SRC members are. They have not been in support of us nor have they communicated with us. The college management has refused to speak to us and indicated that they will only talk to the SRC. However, the SRC are not present and not active in this fight.”
They added that they will hand over a memorandum of grievances to the principal on Thursday.
“We had a meeting and it was concluded that we would march to the City Campus, where we will hand over a memorandum to the principal. We will not continue with any academic activities until the management responds to our grievances.
“There are members of management at the two campuses who have victimised students by forcing them to write tests. We will not return to normal learning until the matter has been resolved.”
