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At least 220 students from across the university’s four campuses received much-needed reprieve thanks to a cash injection of approximately R1,1 million from the Motsepe Foundation.
This timely donation, part of a broader intervention to help alleviate challenges surrounding registration, fees, and historical debt, saw student representative councils from the country’s 26 universities congregating in Johannesburg recently to participate in the Universities in Dialogue meeting before claiming their stake of a R30 million endowment.
On hand to receive the more than million rand donation on behalf of the WSU student community was interim ISRC liaison officer, Lufefe Tabata together with his counterpart, interim ISRC R & C Support, Avela Ngqunguza.
“This donation is very important because of the significant contribution it provides to us the as WSU community, including the promotion of promotion and advancement of the educational mandate of the university,“ said Tabata.
Following extensive deliberations by the interim ISRC and campus coordinators regarding how the money should be utilized, the collective agreed to use the money to help 229 students register by paying for their minimum initial payment.
Tabata said it was imperative that student leadership show compassion, understanding and a will to intervene on behalf financially challenge students that sometimes get caught up in the long and arduous processes such as “special cases“.
Tabata said: “The impact we wish our decision to have is to ensure that our students access the education system. We wish to impress upon our students the importance of education so that they don’t take its importance and potential to change one’s life lightly. “
Acting Director for Student Governance Leadership & Development, Ntsikie Nohako-Mtiki said the funding would greatly assist in supplementing some of the interventions the university already has in place to help students register for their studies.
“The University through its Council avail funds to assist students that unable to register through a process of Special Cases and in some instances the funding is not enough to accommodate all students. This donation will extend that olive branch to those students. It comes at the right time when there’s a great need for students to access the system and complete their studies. This in turn will contribute to the WSU throughput rate,“ said Nohako-Mtiki.
By Thando Cezula
