Suitcases, blankets and pillows lined the main entrance to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) Bellville Campus on Tuesday, as over one hundred students were evicted from temporary emergency accommodation.
Over the past two weeks, around 300 students have been staying at the Student Centre, but were ejected during the early morning hours yesterday.
Noxolo Xulu, 24, from KwaZulu- Natal says she arrived on Friday and was one of the students who had been sleeping at the centre.
She claims she was accepted and registered for a Bachelor of Para- legal Studies, but was still struggling to secure residence, with the status of her application still pending.
She says: “My clothes are outside and I don’t feel safe at all.
“We don’t have places to bathe, we don’t have food. We are really struggling. I wish I could go back home.”
“They woke us up at 5am and they gave us five minutes to leave with our bags. We haven’t bathed, we haven’t eaten since this morning.”Lungile Kunene, 22, from Newcastle, KZN said she has been staying in the centre for more than two weeks. She says she was accepted and registered to study Electrical Engineering.
Lungile adds: “Nothing has changed so far. The only thing they are saying that they’re going to place us, but nothing has changed.”
The students did not know where they would be sleeping last night.
A number of student groups gathered at the Administration Building to present a memorandum of demands to the executive management, with 24 hours given to respond.
These demands include that all registered students be granted access to campus and given temporary placement while waiting for permanent placement.
They also want the immediate suspension of academic activities until all demands are met; that all accepted students must be allowed to register; and that CPUT must be exempted from the NSFAS pilot project and revert back to Fundi system.
A student leader claimed those stranded outside the campus were registered CPUT students, most who had pending residence status on the residence applications. Most of them were also first years.
However, CPUT spokesperson Lauren Kansley maintains that they are not students, but rather people who had applied but did not get a place to study.
Kansley says: “Please note that we do not understand these squatters to be bona fide students.
“Those who were asked to move are not eligible for residence since they either aren’t passing or they have no acceptance.”