Pretoria - The Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) has done a U-turn and will now accept a wheelchair-bound student “with immediate effect”.
The institution on Wednesday sent Lekae Combrinck-Nawa a letter saying he could not be registered because there were no facilities like ramps on campus.
The university said it could not put up more disability-friendly facilities like ramps at the Arcadia campus because of a lack of funds.
Combrinck-Nawa lost his legs in an accident two years ago and had to drop out of his animation studies course to recover.
On Thursday, university spokeswoman Willa de Ruyter said the Department of Higher Education and Training had made funds available for him to get prosthetic legs.
“The use of these prostheses will enhance his mobility and will enable him to move around more comfortably on the arts campus,” De Ruyter said.
Once registered, she said, Combrinck-Nawa would be assisted by the university’s centre for orthotics and prosthetics to become mobile on the prostheses. She said he would also receive ongoing support from the disability unit.
Combrinck-Nawa said he was ecstatic that he would finally begin his studies. “After two years, I can finally go back to studying without being victimised. I can now concentrate on my studies and doing the best I can. This is only the beginning of great things.”
But the institution is not off the hook just yet. The South African Human Rights Commission is now investigating TUT’s admission policies on disabled students.
Spokesman Isaac Mangena said: “Our investigation will cover the campus where this happened, but also look at what measures are in place to accommodate learners with disabilities at other campuses of the same institution. Our laws are clear: no person should be discriminated against on the basis of their disability. Like everyone else, people living with disabilities should have equal access to services, participation and opportunities, including learning opportunities.”
Acting vice-chancellor and principal Professor Lourens van Staden said the institution was friendly to disabled students.
But he admitted without the department’s intervention, it would have been hard to enrol Combrinck-Nawa.
“This university has for a number of years enrolled a large number of students across all our campuses. That building on the arts campus is old. We had our engineers there and it is not possible to install a lift there.
“The current staircases are very steep,” he added.
He said the institution had thought Combrinck-Nawa had prostheses, but later found that was not so. Combrinck-Nawa has prostheses but they’re uncomfortable to walk in. Combrinck-Nawa was the only student he was aware of that was turned away because of his disability.
“Ideally that particular building will have to be reallocated for other purposes,” Van Staden said.
Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has allocated R6 million to the institution to improve facilities.
Pretoria News