Woeful tale of student accommodation

AS many as 10 000 University of Zululand students do not have adequate accommodation a Zululand Observer investigation has found.

Of the approximately 16 000 students registered at the university, only around 4 000 are accommodated in quarters owned and maintained by the university.

A large number are crammed in communes and share rented houses, while the select few (senior students who are employed or students with parents who own homes near the campuses) live on their own.

But the large majority live in rooms rented from would-be landlords in KwaDlangezwa and eSikhaleni in conditions that are not only dangerous, but often inhumane.

In August, the ZO visited one student at his off-campus residence less than a kilometre away from Unizulu’s main campus gate in KwaDlangezwa.

Luyanda Ntaku, who said he was a law student, sat on his bed – a cheap pine ensemble – inside a room approximately two by three metres, with a worn and cracked linoleum floor.

With him were some friends, fellow students. They were relaxing, reading about soccer in a Zulu newspaper and talking about girls and life.

Luyanda’s room was built next to other almost identical cement and brick squares with tin roofs, crammed into a small piece of land housing close 40 students.

He said he paid around R450 a month to stay there.

The only other furniture he has in the room is a table with some groceries stacked on top of it. The only plug in the room hangs from a ceiling beam, a modified electrical cord with exposed wires.

The gaps between the roof and the beams are stuffed with newspapers to keep the dust and mosquitoes out.

He laughed when asked if there was hot water for his shower.

‘Almost never. The electricity comes and goes. But at least I am close to campus.’

The communal shower is in a small dirty, dark outhouse which also houses two toilets – one for men and the other for women.

The lights inside do not work and the doors cannot lock – a piece of wire the only way to keep the door shut when occupied.

‘We never come to the toilet alone at night,’ said one girl, who did not want to give her name.

Luyanda agreed, saying everyone always took everything valuable out of their room when they left to go to class.
‘Crime is bad, it’s bad everywhere. There are always people stealing.’

Next to the toilets and shower there is a large stainless steel basin, which everyone shares to wash their dishes – rain or shine.

Luyanda is not alone – there are worse places than this.

The university came under fire last week when the Mail and Guardian published a story regarding the planned expenditure of almost R72.5-million for a 350 bed complex in Richards Bay which would serve as student accommodation.

Estate agents and others labelled the price tag as ‘exorbitant’.

But the deal is still pending ministerial approval Unizulu spokeswoman Gcina Nhleko this week confirmed.

‘There is also new 250 bed residence under construction at the main campus,’ Nhleko said.

This R40-million project is funded through a Development Bank of South Africa loan.

Empangeni-based construction company, MET Builders, who also worked on the construction of the Richards Bay campus, lists the residence on their website as a R44-million project.

This while seven homes and two plots with plans for executive management accommodation inside the exclusive Zini River Estate was purchased for R24.7-million late last year with funds from the universities own coffers.

‘Unizulu is constantly looking for opportunities to increase its number of bed spaces,’ Nhleko concluded.

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