By Odwa Bafana Mkentane
The South African Students Congress (SASCO), at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, has welcomed the unconditional withdrawal of the university’s proposed 2027 Financial Recovery Plan.
SASCO says the decision is a victory for students, particularly those from working-class and poor households, who it says would have been unfairly burdened by the proposed plan. The student organisation credits sustained student mobilisation and collective action for forcing the university’s Council and Executive Management to withdraw the plan.
Bellville SASCO, Media and Publicity Secretary Onela Kolisi says SASCO has consistently maintained that no student should be forced to bear the cost of institutional financial challenges that are beyond their control.
“The proposed plan would have further excluded students already recognised through NSFAS as being unable to afford the full cost of higher education. Its withdrawal is therefore a necessary and correct decision, and we accept it in the spirit of advancing access to education for all.
“We further acknowledge the accompanying resolution to release academic transcripts and certificates for NSFAS-affected students, and we await its final approval at the upcoming Council meeting on 05 September 2026. This correction is long overdue and affirms the principle that no student’s academic record should be held hostage due to funding challenges beyond their means,” said Kolisi.
Kolisi added that while they accept these gains, Sasco remains vigilant.
“We will continue to participate in all structured engagements and mass meetings to ensure that the interests of students remain central to every decision affecting the future of CPUT. We call on all students to remain united, disciplined and organised as we enter the next phase of this struggle. The victories we have won were not handed to us they were earned through collective action. The future of our institution must continue to be shaped by the voices and participation of its students,” she said.
CPUT’s student representative and students held a peaceful march to hand over a memorandum and supporting documents to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in Pinelands that were previously submitted via an email.
Students met at various areas, including Bellville Campus and Cape Town Station for District Six and Mowbray Residence. The students demanded accountability, transparency, and external intervention.
The march comes after the SIU flagged an estimated R320 million intended to support students has been lying dormant in accounts linked to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), now-discontinued Celbux voucher payment system.
The findings are contained in an SIU presentation to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Higher Education recently, where the investigative body provided an update on key investigations into dysfunction at the financial aid scheme.
The SIU told the committee that it had received 14 proclamations to investigate matters within the higher education portfolio between 2017 and 2025.
Photo: SASCO Bellville Facebook
