TVET College students in limbo with only 1 200 spaces available
This follows a stampede on 11 January which left six students injured.
POLOKWANE – Six prospective students at the Capricorn TVET College Polokwane Campus were casualties of a stampede on 11 January as chaos erupted after the gates were opened and a stampede ensued as other prospective students pushed to get to the front of the line.
Read more: Students injured during stampede at Capricorn TVET College
The college’s public relations officer, Tumelo Morobe, said that five of the six prospective students were treated at the campus with minor injuries. One had to be taken to hospital but was released within a few hours.
“As a result of the incident we decided the registration for new students will be suspended for the day. We changed the venue where prospective students can register at the college to the Peter Mokaba Stadium from Monday, 12 January,” Morobe said.
The stampede comes after previous reports of students braving nights in queues in hopes of securing space at the college.
Morobe at the time told BONUS the problem was that people waited until the last minute to register at universities which leads to large numbers not getting accepted. These students, Morobe explained, then flock to TVET colleges to apply to further their studies resulting in the large number of hopefuls waiting in long queues.
One of the prospective students, Ramano Dagume, who travelled from Venda with his younger sister to assist her with registration at the college said he was disappointed by the entire registration process.
“I feel they were not prepared even though the same thing happened previous years as an excessive number of students rush to register at these colleges. We are now stranded as the registration process was suspended. We slept in the queue last night in the hope that my sister would be able to register today. We can’t afford to go back to Venda and come back again in the hopes of being able to register,” he said.
Another hopeful, Mpho Moopa from Seshego, expressed frustration at the events of the day.
“The stampede that happened could have been avoided had there been proper control of the queue. People tried to skip the queue that had been there since the previous day and I think that’s what caused people to try and force their way in. I have no choice but to go queue at the stadium because Capricorn TVET is my only hope for furthering my studies this year,” he explained.
Morobe noted the plight of students who have come from far and are without accommodation, he said he can’t commit to anything but the matter will be taken to management for discussion to see what can be done to assist them.
There are only around 1 200 spaces available for first entering students.
