The higher education system of South consists of 50 Public TVET colleges and 26 Universities with nearly 2 million registered students spread across these institutions. Whilst 127 Private institutions of Higher Learning service nearly 200 000 students. There are 203 registered institutions of higher learning in South Africa, totaling over 2 million students, the aforementioned institutions are residential universities except for UNISA the largest university which is an ODL (Online Distance Learning) university that boasts 420 000 students from across the country and the world. Approximately 1.8 million students belong to a residential university the entire number might not require university accommodation however students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds prefer campus residences. This article will attempt to look at the 21st NEC of SASCO’s political theme “homeless at home/ silala emaweni identifying possible areas of concern and providing suggestions on how to address the accommodation crisis using statutory bodies South Africa’s governance system.
The Higher education crisis of student accommodation.
Institutions of higher learning were established to serve the offspring of the ruling class, decades of struggle have culminated in the slow but difficult transformation of institutions to accommodate the children of the working class in general and black Africans in particular. This historical root is evident in the structural setup of most institutions that are unable to accommodate large numbers in terms of student enrollment and even smaller numbers with regards to residences. Within Public institutions previously white university residences usually provide mandatory dining hall facilities whilst in previously black institutions where food security is a crisis the same is not done. TVET colleges suffer from a similar crisis because their infrastructure is largely reminiscent of the apartheid era and therefore they also are incapable of housing their ever-growing enrollment numbers.
The geographical spread of Universities in South Africa still mirrors the apartheid spatial system, most institutions are found in urban towns and cities. The course offerings from institutions lack consistency for example a child from Mpumalanga will always have to travel outside their province if they want to study Medicine, Law, B Engineering qualification, at a residential university despite the presence of two residential universities (TUT and UMP) in Mpumalanga. A student that would want to acquire skills in 3D printing and cybersecurity coding, would have to leave the province to seek education outside despite the presence of over 5 TVET colleges. Regardless of DHET’s efforts students from rural areas still have to travel across the country to access education because of this unequal course distribution. As a student organization our position on the land question must seek to address how it has become normal for the students of this country to be “homeless at home”.
The above-mentioned students are often condemned when they reach institutions, which are unable to house them. A bulk of them is forced to seek off-campus accommodation at accredited residences or communes, shacks, flats, and backrooms. The organization through its SRC deployees has been consistent in lobbying universities and NSFAS to accredit private accommodation companies in order to prevent students from opting for unsafe alternatives. I, however, believe that this action is unsustainable and has given rise to rampant corruption spearheaded by university officials and student activists purporting to be acting in the interest of the less fortunate.
Private accommodation firms have progressively driven the cost of student accommodation above the normal rental rates in the areas where they exist. It is common for the majority of the companies to charge a student R3000/pps/m in a 3 three-bedroom unit with one shared bathroom and kitchen. The owner would in essence make R18000 per unit whilst the average rental rate of a 3 bedroom flat in the same area R9000. The NSFAS accreditation has led to price-fixing in the student accommodation market across the country. The services rendered in many of this private accommodation come at an extra price, things like laundry service, Wi-Fi are usually charged as extras whereas university residences provide such for free. Private residences are in their majority more expensive than on-campus residences, and ironically this is where the bulk of NSFAS students are housed especially in historically white institutions. While NSFAS and university accredited residences are currently assisting in accommodating the backlog of students unable to access on-campus accommodation, they are in no way a sustainable solution to the student housing crisis in South Africa.
In order to combat the rampant price-fixing and ridiculous inflation, it is important that SASCO through its newly established research institute compiles a tangible complaint/report and submit it to the competition commission for a thorough judgment. This report must include accreditation processes involving student leaders, university managers, and building owners. If the intention of the organization is to position itself as a true vanguard of the most vulnerable students it must be willing to actively rid itself of those who utilize the powers granted to them by the organization to enrich themselves at the expense of students.
Communes and Non-Accredited Private accommodation
Students that don’t qualify for NSFAS and institutionally accredited Private residences enter into private lease agreements with real estate agencies or landlords for communes or apartments. This sector is highly unregulated and students in the recent past have been scammed of their deposit fee by bogus advertisements on online platforms like gumtree, private property, and property 24. Real estate companies are largely unrealistic for most poor students because of the vetting process and absurd deposit fees. Students from middle-class families are often accommodated after they parents take large bank loans, in some cases their parent often become blacklisted due to failure to pay. TVET colleges are presented with a challenge of their own whereby this type of accommodation in close proximity is often not available, furthermore the structuring of their academic year into trimesters as opposed to semesters often means that students might not be able to sign full-year lease contracts or forfeit their deposits when eventually they must relocate in order to do their practical assessment. NSFAS has deepened the crisis by refusing to pay transport levies to a student who lives within a close radius to the campus. This policy totally ignores the possible dangers which could occur in specific community, also noting that students who live in off-campus accommodation often leave campus very late after studying. The NSFAS policy in TVET’s that requires 80% attendance is also problematic as it creates a situation where a student who has made contractual commitments to a landlord might not be able to see them through. This policy, however, doesn’t exist in Universities where accommodation and other allowances are paid without regard to class attendance.
Unscrupulous practices must be reported to the Human settlement ombudsman and the department of trade and industry. Work needs to be done to establish fair trade policies that do not inherently take advantage of the scarcity of accommodation in close proximity to institutional campuses. NSAFS must be engaged to conduct a thorough assessment of the type of communities where TVET campuses are situated.
Student Homelessness
The question is how do students become homeless with so many options for accommodation? NSFAS has done a lot of work in ensuring that students are funded, student accommodation is inherently expensive, and often when students are not granted a full allocation by NSFAS, they are unable to find accommodation that fits into their budget. Libraries, offices, lecture halls, and toilets have become bedrooms on many campuses. In certain institutions squatting in residences has become an epidemic, rooms meant to accommodate 2 students frequently house 4 or 5 students. Institutions have attempted to clamp down on such practices however the people who suffer the most are those left with nowhere else to go.
Homeless female students are the most at risk, in a country where rape is rampant reality. Women are often forced to sleep in open areas and unsafe places with no form of protection. A fairly new concept that has been adopted in student circles called hobosexuality, which in essence are students that engage in sexual relationships in order to secure place to sleep. Hobosexuality seems like a harmless practice however the power dynamic between the owner and hobo could easily escalate into an abusive relationship. Women in higher education often find themselves in abusive relationships with men, at times they are unable to leave these relationships because they have nowhere else to go. Dangerous sexual practices in the higher education terrain put hobosexuals at high risk of contracting sexually transmitted illnesses. Some female students are faced with unintended pregnancies due to this type of cohabitation which forces them to drop out or terminate the pregnancy, both of these actions place psychological strain on them.
Institutions of Higher learning strive to create a living and learning environment for students, the creation of residences ensures that students are able to mingle with their peers in an environment that cultivates a habit of learning. Students that squat or are homeless are often unable to perform to their full potential academically, primarily due to the stress of being homeless which is often coupled with the inability to buy food on a daily basis. A bad academic creates a possibility of these students being excluded but also precludes them from accessing funding from various institutions.
What is to be done?
The department of Higher Education, COGTA, Human settlements, Public works, Local government, and NSFAS must create student villages across the country. This suggestion is not new but DHET and other stakeholders have been prolonging the process. Most institutions are unable to build residences on the land available to them, but also the consistent tradeoff between building residences and increasing teaching and learning capacity of university often causes unnecessary debate in university councils.
The central business districts of most urban areas in South Africa is concerning, CBD’s have become crime-infested, unattractive areas where most people would never imagine staying. The gentrification of these areas is desperately needed and the student village plan is a sustainable manner of achieving the broader goal. The construction of student villages seeks to transform these areas into viable and attractive markets and residential areas. In the context of TVETs colleges, these institutions can play a role in gentrification rural communities by building these student villages. The broad vision is to create student villages that would house students from all institutions under one roof, these villages must be fitted with WiFi, laundry rooms, study rooms, and a reasonable library. The bulk of students staying in these residences should be senior students, whilst first-year students must be given priority occupancy at on-campus residences. Poor students will be prioritized in terms of occupancy, ensuring that a percentage of the occupancy will be dedicated to students who cannot afford residence fees that are not receiving any form of financial or are unable to afford the NSFAS expected family contribution (EFC). Institutions will be granted a set number of beds in relation to their intake. Institutions will only be allowed to accredit privately in the event where the demand for residences exceeds the capacity of their on-campus residences and allocation in the student village.
District Based service delivery model as Catalyst
President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced the district based development model recently, this new approach to rapid service delivery based on regions could be an effective model for the roll out these student villages. The district-based model takes into consideration the 44 districts and 8 metros in South Africa, it furthermore creates an economic and service delivery plan for each of these areas. The plans are enacted through the local, national government, and business entities. The majority of the 44 districts and all 8 metros have institutions of higher learning situated within them. I believe that it is imperative for the leadership of SASCO to formulate distinct student housing plans suited to fit within the plans each of these regions. It would, therefore, become the role of SASCO regional structures within the districts to form part of the stakeholder engagements and lobby for the inclusion of the student population in the district based service delivery plan. SASCO in KZN has been lobbying for the gentrification of the Waterfront point area into student village to ensure that the entire area of the point is fully developed and safe. The district-based model coins its plans as an inter and intra government-wise social compact placing emphasis on the participation of a member of the communities in order to make the plans viable and relevant.
Conclusion
The current political epoch and challenge that we face as SASCO cannot be consistently addressed through the traditional methods that we have employed in the past. New struggles require a new approach, one that exploits the governance channels afforded to us by South Africa’s constitutional democracy. It requires comrades within the movement to utilize the skills and knowledge which they have amassed through their various courses of study in order to improve the lives of the student constituency. The time where rhetoric and catchy slogans have come to an end, a student activist that wishes to address the plight of the working class needs to be well equipped with the knowledge and tangible solutions. The new activist must detest the patronage networks that have developed between so-called activists, institutional managers, and greedy business owners. The new activist must utilize new methods of protest, which do not require sweating and chanting.
The solutions that we provide as an organization should be long and lasting, we must avoid taking shortcuts when dealing with monumental tasks. SASCO must seek to provide solutions that force the government to build in house infrastructure and capacity. The outsourcing of pivotal facets of the higher education system must come to an end!
Xolile Nkabinde is a Ndip Legal assistance graduate currently pursuing her post-graduate studies in Public Affairs at TUT Mbombela Campus. She is the YCLSA District Deputy Secretary of Phillip Radebe District.NEC member of SAUS and SANAC representative for AGYW. She writes in her personal capacity