Student protests shut down several Unisa campuses
Protesting students shut down several University of South Africa’s (Unisa) campuses on Monday, including Sunnyside in Pretoria.
They accuse the university of failing to respond to issues raised by students.
Unisa spokesperson Martin Ramotshela says one of the key issues is around National Student Financial Aid Scheme (Nsfas) students, who should be provided with laptops, texts books and meal vouchers.
"The university acknowledges that it is aware of these issues, one, but number two the matter relating to the laptops was already addressed with the students before the closure of the academic year last year and there was a resolution taken between the university and the students and Nsfas hat qualifying Unisa students, who register successfully and are funded by NSFAS, will receive laptops upon successful registration with the university.”
Ramotshela says the matters relating to text books and meal vouchers can only be handled by Nsfas.
"We will be engaging the students. The meeting has been secured with the students to discuss these issues but in particular to advise in terms of when and how to address this concern."
Ramotshela says the meeting was supposed to have taken place on Monday but might need to be moved to Tuesday due to the availability of university management.
Other campuses affected include Gauteng, Florida Service Centre, Limpopo and Parow in Cape Town.
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