Cape Town - Students from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) have been left with no choice but to sleep on a storeroom floor on campus – despite being allocated a spot in one of the residences.
At least four students from outside the Western Cape have been lodging in the storeroom at CPUT’s Wellington Campus after they were told they were accepted into the student residence.
“We applied for residency and got accepted, then we came and they said they don’t have spaces,” a student, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said.
“They said we should first register. We did, and we came back with the proof of the statement.
“They said there is no space and we don’t know who they allocated in our space. They said now we should wait. We’ve been waiting for three weeks now. We’re sleeping on the floor on the mattresses.”
The students are from the Eastern Cape and say they are finding the situation difficult because they are near to the entrance, and it is difficult to study when there is a constant bustle.
Using the bathroom is also a problem because the students cannot use the
guest bathroom closest to them, but
one further away.
However, CPUT spokeswoman Lauren Kansley said that the students were not forced to sleep on mattresses on the floor but had opted to.
“The students have begged residence management for any place to stay while waiting for spaces to become available, and in a compassionate effort to assist, residence management have made a committee meeting room available for three students to be housed until the matter is resolved.
“Students will only be obliged to leave residences once registration has finished. Once that has concluded we will know which students are legitimately in residence and which not. Places should become available after that.”
Kansley said they hoped to have the
students placed in rooms as early as next week.