Minister Nkabane receiving a present from Vice Chancellor, Professor Sibongile Muthwa.
By Joseph Chirume
Port Elizabeth
The Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane had to draw her wits to cool down agitating students at Nelson Mandela University on Monday (17 February 2025) who demanded nothing but a permanent resolution to the issues plaguing the institution.
The Minister’s visit was meant to assess the progress in relation to the 2025 registration and academic year of the university. Angry students who were gathered in the National Students Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) offices at the North Campus door-stepped the minister and demanded she pledge to fulfil at least 80% of their demands.
Students expressed frustration over the alleged perennial empty promises and added that the NSFAS office was not assisting with the timely disbursing of their allowances. They said this resulted in some of them failing to register for the academic year. The non-availability of money from NSFAS also created a situation in which about 500 desperate students were left stranded in the streets with no accommodation.
Minister Nkabane’s visit follows a recent protest by students which forced the suspension of lectures prompting the university to resort to online learning.
Students also raised the issues of unresolved concessions cases, various registration challenges, accommodation challenges, concern about shortage of shuttles and the poor state of security measures at the institution and at its accredited accommodation.
Student Ashley Shabangu fearlessly faced the Minister as he unequivocally narrated some of the grievances facing students.
Shabangu demanded, “Remove the bounces from the university first, and stop saying there are few issues here. The issues are too many. We can’t be lying on a public platform saying there are few issues. We have been facing these issues for years. This is not the first-year students are facing problems with NSFAS. We need a permanent resolution not temporary solution as is always.
“You want us to come to university whilst some of us are hungry? Where are we supposed to sleep? Where are we supposed to go? Students can’t come to classes because they’re hungry and angry. You want us to attend classes as if everything is fine where students are hungry and haven’t registered.
“The issues raised here are many. The week you gave NSFAS to stay here is too small because the issues are many. We’re saying to the Minister now, can we see these issues resolved not temporarily but should have a permanent resolution? We’re sick and tired of being called Barbarians because we take to the streets to fight for ourselves. Fix at least 80% of these issues, Minister. We can’t go back on the ground again and again having to fight. First thing first, remove these bouncers from our university to make it a safe environment for learning and teaching, Minister.”
SRC President, Lathitha Mbuzwana expressed hope and satisfaction with what the Minister had assured students in her quest to address their grievances.
Mbuzwana told The Pixley Independent, “The visit by the Minister addressed all the issues facing us as students. We are happy that all the issues we raised with the minister are able to deal with them from a ministerial point of view. We have created a form where all NSFAS issues are going to be written on, where students can fill out the form with their names, surnames and student numbers so that they can be responded to promptly, then we send that form to the minister.”
Minister Nkabane reacted by appointing a team of experts who would remain at the university for a week in order to ensure all the outlined grievances are addressed.
Minister Nkabane said her visit forms part of a national roll-out program throughout the country to assess the state of readiness of government institutions of higher learning.
“Because we want to make sure that there is stability and there’s unity. The issues of concerns of students are taken care of so that’s what we came here for. We we’re satisfied that our NSFAS system here is working, however, there are few issues that the students have raised and we have assigned a team that is going to be here for a period of a week to solve all those problems that they have raised.”
In a statement issued on 17 February 2025, NMU revealed that it had received 188 835 applications for first year study when it had only spaces for 7500 students. On the issue of accommodation shortage, the university told students that temporary accommodation had been arranged both in George and Gqeberha campuses. It also stated that it had disbursed 14000 NSFAS allowances with the outstanding claims of 3200 to be paid soon.
