Palesa Malebo
SASOLBURG. – Students at Flavius Mareka College continued to strike on Monday (23 April 2019)
demanding their monthly allowance of R1 950 from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) for March and April. Students have been striking since last week.
A spokesperson for Flavius Mareka Student Representative Council (SRC), Mokoatala Makalane, says the delayed payments of NSFAS allowances has affected students who depend on it.
“The delay in the NSFAS allowance affect us academically as some of the students depend on that money to travel and for personal care. So if they don’t get their money it becomes difficult for them to attend school with empty stomachs and with no money for taxi fare, for those who travel on a daily basis.”
During the strike, led by concerned students and supported by the SRC and EFF Student Command, students pikited outside the institution where they sang struggle songs and burned broken trees.
According to Mokoatala, students took to the streets because “when they inquire at the Finance office they don’t get answers”. “We also met with the campus Manager and didn’t get any answers,” he added.
The SRC handed over a memorandum of demands to Management on 15 April, with the NSFAS allowance topping the list.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme is a bursary scheme which provides poor and working class South African students with fully subsidised free higher education and training.
