DURBAN - THE PROBLEM of historic debt that plunged the University of KwaZulu-Natal into chaos last year is threatening to once again disrupt the opening of the 2021 academic year.
This comes after the university’s student leadership threatened to bring the institution to a standstill if the university management ordered them to pay historical debt before registration.
According to the student leadership, the university had instructed students to pay 15% of their historic debt before they would be cleared for this year’s registration. The student leadership said students and their families were battling financially and in no position to pay 15%, adding the unrest was inevitable.
On Monday night, students camped with their blankets and pillows on the entrance of the Westville Campus to show their frustration.
The UKZN Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA), consisting of the Student Representative Council (SRC), ANC Youth League and Young Communist League of South Africa (YCL), accused the institution of being arrogant towards their demands.
Last year, a number of buildings, vehicles and other university facilities were set alight allegedly by the disgruntled students after the university ordered them to pay their historic debt before they were allowed to register.
The institution is currently carrying R1.7 billion in student debt. It has also said damages as a result of violent flare-ups last year alone amounted to R31 million.
SRC president Siyabonga Nkandako said numerous meetings held with management were fruitless as there was no consensus on any issue brought forward.
Nkandako said a number of students would be excluded from registration, as they won’t be able to pay 15% that was required by the institution. He said the university had refused to reimburse students for the residences as most of them were studying from home.
“Students have been charged 100% for residences while many of them did not stay in these residences due to Covid-19. We want that money to cover students’ historical debt. We reject this 15% as the SRC, bearing in mind that our parents have been retrenched and there is no money,” he said.
According to Nkandako, UKZN came up with a clause saying all those students who didn’t honour their 2020 historical debt, after signing the acknowledgement of debt form, won’t be registered.
He said the leadership tried to convince the institution to let those students to register as they didn’t have money.
“The university rejected all our suggestions. They issued a letter to students last week that they had exceeded the NSFAS funds and should pay the difference. Where would the students get that money because they are funded by NSFAS due to affordability issues?” he asked.
Nkandako said even though they won’t be engaging in any violent protests as yet, they were planning to mobilise students should their issues not be resolved.
“We will call all the students to come back and camp outside the entrance. We will then demand the management to address the students, and the students would then decide what to do.”
UKZN acting executive director of corporate relations, Normah Zondo, said the university had enacted processes which ensured that no single UKZN full-time student was required to pay 100% of their debt in full before registration.
In fact, said Zondo, approximately 78% of the students were required to contribute only 15% towards their historic debt, with a R15 000 cap on the maximum amount payable regardless of their debt.
She said this was the lowest requirement of all universities in the country, adding that most universities required their students to settle their debt in full before registration.
“In sum, the UKZN package of student concessions is the most generous and progressive in South Africa. In spite of the financial difficulties we face as an institution, we have maintained our commitment to the transformation ideals of the institution. When compared with other public universities in South Africa, at UKZN the registration and historic debt processes are by far the most enabling for UKZN students,” said Zondo.
The Mercury