By Odwa Bafana Mkentane
Operations at Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) campuses are on stand still as students are staging a shutdown over various concerns, including the institution’s proposed 2027 financial plan.
On Tuesday morning, a group of students staged a march from the University’s District Six campus, making stops at various residences to mobilise more students to join the march.
On Friday, students handed over a memorandum of demands to the University management at the Bellville campus following a mass meeting led by the Central SRC. Students addressed various issues including, the continuing worsening conditions of university residences, the failure to adequately support residence development programmes, the withholding of academic transcripts and qualification certificates from affected graduates, and the proposed financial recovery plan for 2027
Speaking to VOC News during the march, Central SRC President Liyabulela Gela, says they have resorted to march as the institution is not responding to their demands.
“Currently we are under an institutional shutdown in CPUT on the basis that we have submitted a memorandum of demands that stipulated many issues that are affecting CPUT and a part of those issues, one of the highest ones is the 2027 financial recovery plan has been approved, further by council in September. The financial recovery plan seeks to say that students must pay an upfront registration fee of 7,000 rand, and on top of that there are new clearance rules. And now that means that we are removing the student acknowledgement of debt (AOD) system, that students must just acknowledge their debt instead Now it says that even if I pass 100% of the modules, you still required to pay at least 20% of your debt and obviously it ranges from amount that you owe, “said Gela.
The university issued a statement on Monday responding to the issue of disrupting institutional operations.
Photo: VOCfm
