Cape Town - Claiming that management had failed to respond to issues at residences, some University of the Western Cape (UWC) students on Monday attempted to undermine the university's much-anticipated unveiling of two projects, including the Unibell Residence in Belhar.
The group held a demonstration outside the official launch ceremony of the Unibell Residence, where Higher Education, Science and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande was joined by Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers, UWC’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Tyrone Pretorius and other dignitaries.
The 2 700-bed Unibell accommodation is about five minutes from the main campus.
Later on the same day, the new Faculty of Education building on the southern section of the UWC main campus in Bellville was also opened.
In a video that was played at the ceremony students expressed different views from those demonstrating outside the venue.
Levi Mahlalela, a final year student, was recorded expressing satisfaction with the university.
“The residence was created for students to be in an environment that enables them to study effectively. It is clean, with all the amenities we need.”
Another student praised the lounge area, gym and laundry area, saying that back at home, they were used to hand washing.
However, speaking to the Cape Times on Monday, first year student, Mufunwa Nemakhavhani, said he was shocked that they couldn’t access water when they experienced load shedding.
“On Sunday there was no water but we had no power cuts and earlier today it went out again. Some students attended classes without bathing.
“We don’t know what the problem is and no explanation is given.
“Sometimes the WiFi stops working and we have assignments. We raised our complaints to the Student Representative Council (SRC) who collected all grievances and they were supposed to meet with management.”
SRC president, Mandla Notyawa, said they engaged with the university's management on several occasions.
He said the official unveiling of the residence while problems persisted was misguided. Chaotic scenes were seen outside the residence on Monday, as security personnel pepper-sprayed students and fired at them with pellets.
Pretorius said they were aware of issues in other residences, which were being attended to, and complaints at the new residence had not been brought to management’s attention.
He said they were looking at upgrading their older residences.
“The SRC presented us with a report about several issues at all residences. We have been meeting with relevant departments to assess the complaints.
The process of assessing all of the issues takes time and we shared with the students our plans to address the matters. We have no knowledge of WiFi issues.
The building was only handed over by the contractor in January and as with every big infrastructure project there is a period of fixing snags. It is common to find things that are not properly addressed and we address them,” said Pretorius.
UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder said: “The building is fitted with water and electricity generating technology that allows it to go off-grid. It is also fitted with UPS.
“It might be that a lot of issues and other residences are being conflated with Unibell Residence.”
Nzimande said: “Both the University of the Western Cape’s projects are significant in scale and will certainly add tremendous value to the university, its academic focus and the living and learning experience of students.
We will continue to prioritise infrastructure development at historically disadvantaged universities to ensure that maintenance backlogs are addressed, and the quality of infrastructure delivery management is improved at these institutions.
“The Unibell student accommodation is part of the Phase 1 of the Student Housing Infrastructure Programme (SHIP). From the onset, SHIP was established to ensure that a minimum of 60% of the student beds it delivers are for campuses in rural and peri-urban areas.”
Cape Times