LIMPOPO – The fire started at around 21:00 however was extinguished before extensive damage could occur.
This video was shared by Letaba Herald
The Spokesperson of the university and Executive Director of Marketing and Communication, Kgalema Mohuba, on Monday said the fire was a minor incident. ” It seems like one of the students threw something in the tunnel dustbin which caused a smoke but it was immediately controlled to avoid any damages. The fire did not affect any residential accommodation at all and was not the result of any known foul play.”
Review over the weekend, received a plea to investigate the “fraudulent” award of residence accommodation. The source revealed that she was a student who lived in the female residences and passed her exams, but now cannot find accommodation there because of fraudulent activities.
“A lot of qualifying girls were forced to go and start looking for places off-campus as they were denied space on campus because the residence assistants where giving out rooms to their friends even though they don’t qualify. For example, I know of people that wrote supplementary exams but are living on campus right know and students who worked hard and passed all modules without supplementary exams where denied rooms.”
The source alleges that it is a rule that if a person writes supplementary exams or winter exams they are not eligible to get residence on campus, but that was not the case this year and pleads: “Please help a black child in need of your professional investigative skills to look into the matter.”
Mohuba added that with regards to students having written supplementary exams he said there are a few students who were given accommodation due to medical conditions, supported by medical reports. “When allocating accommodation, preference were given to students with a 100% pass at first attempt for the previous academic year. Only thereafter those who wrote supplementary exams were considered, provided there are space available.
Mohuba admitted that the lack of student accommodation is a challenge all over the sector. He said however, that the university is considering public-private-partnerships to address this challenge. “Currently university residences can accommodate 6 962 students and our student population boasts around 22 000 average.”
