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PITCHER, SANU STUDENTS WANT ANSWERS BEFORE SIGNING

By Bongiwe Dlamini | 2019-09-17

The impasse between tertiary students and government is far from being over.

This was the view given by William Pitcher and Southern African Nazarene University (SANU) students after they were given the amended scholarship form yesterday.

It transpired that the William Pitcher College students in agreement with their parents refused to sign the form on the grounds that it seemed incomplete.

The students said they deduced that the contract was incomplete because it only stated that government would award them assistance loans which shall be disbursed on a 30-day cycle or any period not less than a month over a period of 10 months.

The students said this was incomplete in that government did not clearly state the amount of money that would be paid out to them. The scholars were of the view that it would be improper for them to agree to this clause because should government decide to give them an unsatisfactory amount, their hands would be tied because they would have already signed the contract.

Students

Also, the students said government did not state an exact date when the cycle would begin and end. The form that the students were made to sign also stated that government might adjust the students allowances as it deemed fit.

It further stated that any adjustments to this assistance loan would be communicated to students before commencement or during the academic year in which such would be made.

On behalf of the students, the SRC President Ayanda Zwane said they were not pleased with this and as such, would not agree to it.

Zwane further informed this journalist that another reason for them to refuse signing the forms was that the representatives from the ministry of labour and social security did not properly introduce themselves or even tried to explain the terms in the new contract.

“Our parents found this disrespectful on top of the fact that the form did not have an allocated space that required our parents to fill their particulars. This means they were made to travel for long distances, some as far as Lavumisa for sweet nothing,” Zwane said.

When asked on the way forward, the president said they will try to forge a way to engage the ministry of labour and social security today with the hope that they would reach an amicable solution. Until the terms favour the students, Zwane said they would not sign.

Meanwhile at SANU, students were agitated by the fact that when they were given the form by the Dean of Students Affairs Sonnyboy Mamba, there were no representatives from the ministry of labour and social security.

They likened this to a groom who had proposed love to a woman but then failed to show up on the wedding day only to send the ring instead.

They said if the ministry had sent the form without anyone from the relevant department coming to explain the terms, it meant that they were not important in the equation.

The scholars said this was wrong on all fronts. First, they said the form they received did not have government’s letterhead or stamp to show that it was indeed an authentic document.

They construed this as a sign that there were other pages of the contract that were removed either because they had the potential to ignite war or they contained other terms that students would not agree with.

In this regard, they said they did not want to unknowingly commit themselves to terms that would further give them problems.

Also, just like their colleagues at William Pitcher, they said they could not sign their future away by agreeing that government do as he pleases with the funds that are supposed to be disbursed to them.

Further, when signing the forms, the students said they were required to attach their copy of the initial scholarship agreement which meant they would be left without a copy.

“We don’t understand why the ministry wants this form because they have their copy which they got when we first signed,” some students told this journalist.

Opposed

Furthermore, with the form that they were given, the students said the addendum only favoured government, as opposed to the initial agreement that called for both parties to agree on certain items before anyone could sign.

When sought for comment, the outgoing SRC President Tholisizwe Simelane said although he was in no position to speak on behalf of students, but a lot of them had reported to him that they would not sign on the aforementioned grounds.

He said his colleagues had made it clear that until the ministry addresses them properly, they would stick by their decision.

However, Simelane said a few students had signed the form because they feared being deregistered by the institution.

The students said should they be deregistered after failing to sign, no class will continue until their grievances were heard. “My colleagues no longer trust government because it has been inconsistent many times and proof to that is that our book fee has still not been paid to the school since the beginning of the year,” the outgoing president said.

SANU’s Marketing Manager Petros Mavuso said although the institution was only a centre for the government process, he confirmed that as majority of the students had opted not to sign the contract because they had questions that needed to be answered by the ministry’s officials who were, unfortunately, not there.

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