CPUT student calls for urgent NSFAS intervention amid funding delays

CPUT students are now calling for an immediate moratorium on evictions to protect those who cannot afford rent due to NSFAS delays. A student at Cape Peninsula University of Technology has described a “life-threatening crisis” unfolding on campus, as delays in funding and a sluggish appeals process leave many students at risk of eviction and potential homelessness. Rethabile Roboro says she and several fellow students are enduring severe hardship due to delayed payments from National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), which has recently come under scrutiny aslandlordsreport mounting financial strain caused by late payments, and the burden of carrying student needs and municipal costs.

“This has become the reality for actual students at CPUT,” Roboro said. She explained that she submitted her funding appeal after losing financial support, but the application has been stuck on the “submitted” status for more than three weeks. “Many other students and I are being evicted from our accommodation places.

We are currently facing the reality of sleeping on the streets of Cape Town,” she said. Roboro is also appealing for the urgent processing of her funding “before a tragedy occurs” while students are living on the streets. NSFAS spokesperson Ishmael Mnisi said the responsibility for accommodation matters lies with the university.

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“We don’t have a new response on this matter of delayed payments because it is the same as the last. CPUT deals with the allocation of students and they know which NSFAS-accredited accommodation providers they have paid and which ones they haven’t,” Mnisi said. He added that payments were run on March 2 and that theuniversity is responsiblefor distributing those funds to specific accommodations, not NSFAS.

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