Government Supports R1.4 billion allocation to universities

The IFP is pleased that the Department of Higher Education and Training has allocated R1.4 billion to improve university infrastructure.

Upgrades will include university student residences especially at disadvantaged universities such as Walter Sisulu University and University of Fort Hare in the Eastern Cape, where students currently live under extremely poor conditions and have to share small rooms with a number of other students.

This funding should be made available immediately to universities so that they may begin with their renovations.

A portion of the funding should also be used to provide universities with a student transport infrastructure as this is currently a point of contention and one of the main issues of the current student protest at Mangosuthu University of Technology in Durban.

The Department must endeavour to meet the needs of all students in order to prevent this kind of disruptive action being taken by students on university campuses.

The IFP urges the management at Mangosuthu University of Technology to resolve this impasse with its students as a matter of urgency so that the business of educating students may resume in earnest.