South African deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday made a commitment to help financially strained and starving University of Fort Hare (UFH) students.
Ramaphosa also said he plans to establish a task team to look into challenges faced by students meant to benefit from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Ramaphosa, who is also the ANC’s deputy president, was speaking at the university’s main campus in Alice during the provincial ANC Freedom Charter Forum attended by various senior politicians, religious leaders and students.
He said after he had met privately with UFH student leaders, who outlined the “dire situation” faced by the struggling students, he felt the need for his office to intervene.
The deputy president said he had assigned premier Phumulo Masualle to look into finding immediate solutions for students, said to be attending classes without having anything to eat because their meal cards had not been activated by
NSFAS.
“We just came out of a meeting with student leaders who laid out a serious case on challenges faced
by students in this university.
“Those leaders engaged us and gave us facts about challenges faced as a result of NSFAS not meeting all the requirements for students to have a conducive studying environment,” he said.
Speaking at the same gathering, Masualle said the office of his director-general and that of UFH vice-chancellor Dr Mvuyo Tom were “working on details” to attend to the students’ immediate needs, “with the critical one being the issue of providing food”.
Attempts to get comment from UFH’s student leadership were unsuccessful at the time of writing.
Yesterday’s event was due to start at 9am but by noon only a handful of ANC leaders and students were seated inside the UFH sports complex while hundreds roamed outside the venue.
However, the hall was packed by the time Ramaphosa eventually spoke. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
Cyril champions starving students
Ramaphosa also said he plans to establish a task team to look into challenges faced by students meant to benefit from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Ramaphosa, who is also the ANC’s deputy president, was speaking at the university’s main campus in Alice during the provincial ANC Freedom Charter Forum attended by various senior politicians, religious leaders and students.
He said after he had met privately with UFH student leaders, who outlined the “dire situation” faced by the struggling students, he felt the need for his office to intervene.
The deputy president said he had assigned premier Phumulo Masualle to look into finding immediate solutions for students, said to be attending classes without having anything to eat because their meal cards had not been activated by
NSFAS.
“We just came out of a meeting with student leaders who laid out a serious case on challenges faced
by students in this university.
“Those leaders engaged us and gave us facts about challenges faced as a result of NSFAS not meeting all the requirements for students to have a conducive studying environment,” he said.
Speaking at the same gathering, Masualle said the office of his director-general and that of UFH vice-chancellor Dr Mvuyo Tom were “working on details” to attend to the students’ immediate needs, “with the critical one being the issue of providing food”.
Attempts to get comment from UFH’s student leadership were unsuccessful at the time of writing.
Yesterday’s event was due to start at 9am but by noon only a handful of ANC leaders and students were seated inside the UFH sports complex while hundreds roamed outside the venue.
However, the hall was packed by the time Ramaphosa eventually spoke. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
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