Landlords evict students as NSFAS fails to pay again

Frustrated landlords have evicted students during exams, claiming that NSFAS has not paid them rent for months.

This is despite NSFAS having appealed to the landlords not to evict students with outstanding payments and promising to resolve all legitimate claims by June 18.

However, some landlords have yet to receive their accommodation allowances, resulting in student evictions. 

Queen Morwakgadi, a student at the Ehlanzeni TVET College, Mthimba Campus, in Mpumalanga, said she and 15 others were evicted from their residences because they had not paid rent for the past five months. 

“It's been hard to focus on my studies while worrying about where I'll sleep but the campus allowed us to sleep in one of the classes because we didn’t know where to go. We can’t go home because we are writing. 

"At the beginning of the year everything was fine when payments were coming from the college, but ever since the switch, we’ve been struggling to get our payments on time, getting charged to just withdraw money,” said Morwakgadi.

Nxumalo Kgaphola, a student from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, said she and five others were evicted last week after not paying for two months. She said the landlord had given them a warning to pay the rent or else they would be kicked out.  

“We explained that there was nothing we could do as most of us had yet to receive any kind of allowances. I have not received my transport, normal or any kind of allowance while others only have transport allowances but no one could pay for the accommodation.

"We have not received the allowance for two months now and we have been complaining about it to NSFAS, but we never get any answers, just that our allowances would come in,” said Kgaphola. 

National Students Forum president Keamogetswe Masike reported receiving complaints from nearly 500 students facing eviction or threats from landlords, mainly from UKZN, the University of Johannesburg and Tshwane University of Technology.

Masike, also SRC president at TUT, is suspended by TUT due to allegations of misconduct relating to his participation in an “unlawful” student protest. The protest was against NSFAS's new direct payment system. Though suspended, students are still taking their complaints to him.

Some of the messages Masike shared with SowetanLIVE read: “Hi President Kea Masike, I'm Zandile, a student at UKZN. I am evicted from Res because of my NSFAS, please help me if you can.” 

In another message, a UJ student said: “Good evening sir, my name is Mbalenhle, I'm a first-year student at UJ and I've been having problems with my NSFAS, my status has been awaiting evaluation. The problem I have now is I'm being chased away at Res.” 

Masike said students have been getting evicted even before NSFAS appealed to landlords. 

“Students have been writing to the forum since last week that they are being evicted by landlords. Service providers are evicting them from their residences even though NSFAS and the universities have pleaded with these landlords to not have students evicted. Some students are homeless now and yet are expected to write their exams in full health,” said Masike. 

A landlord who wanted to remain anonymous said student accommodation was still a business. “I evicted close to 30 students from accommodation because they had not paid rent for the past three months and some from January.

"I feel very devastated. We were not warned about the delays in payments and I continue to have that warm heart of being a parent. So, it’s heartbreaking ... it took long for me to let go but my expenses got so high I had to release them."