DURBAN - STUDENT Representative Councils (SRCs) in the province have raised their concerns over load shedding, which affected university students who were writing their final exams online.
Online exams were introduced after Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande announced last year, amid the Covid-19 third wave and level 4 lockdown, that universities across the country would pause face-to-face teaching and exams.
Eskom announced that stage 4 load shedding would continue until Friday, and stage 2 would follow on Saturday.
University of Zululand SRC president Nkosimathi Sibiya said it was puzzling that load shedding was being implemented during exam time.
“I don’t even fully understand how and why South Africa is facing electricity problems while we generate coal. Every student needs to study hard around this time, but we are faced with load shedding. By the time the electricity comes back I would have already been disadvantaged almost 65% for that exam. Our studying has been compromised and in reality we don’t even know where we stand because even universities are not trying to find new ways to accommodate students.”
Malusi Zuma, University of KwaZulu-Natal’s SRC president, said the situation regarding load shedding was a hard pill to swallow for students.
“If there is an exam that is scheduled and load shedding starts, that affects access to the computer because of the network connectivity. We are severely affected as students are not allowed to re-do or finish up their exams although it was not their fault.
“We are urging university management and teaching divisions to at least reconsider not limiting students with time during exams and assignment submissions, especially with stage 4.”
Mangosuthu University of Technology SRC president Mthokozisi Gumede said students were left with no alternative during load shedding. “Many students will lose their funding” if their exams continued to be affected.
Eskom spokesperson Sikonathi Mantshantsha said load shedding would continue due to the ongoing generation capacity shortages.
He said they, however, apologised for the inconvenience caused and urged the public to reduce electricity usage during power shortages. “While Eskom regrets the escalation in load shedding, it is necessary to ration the remaining emergency generation reserves, which have been utilised extensively this (Monday) morning as we are not getting the reduction in demand as expected from the implementation of stage 2 load shedding.
“It was anticipated that an additional seven units would have returned to service by (Monday), and this has not materialised. Further, a generating unit at Arnot power station tripped this morning (Monday), contributing to the shortages,” Mantshantsha said.
Daily News