Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande announced that his department has applied to the National Treasury for funding to build student housing owned by universities and colleges.
According to Nzimande, the government’s reliance on the private sector for student housing creates difficulties, which is why they had to take this action.
In response to oral questions on Wednesday in the National Assembly, the minister stated that the department receives funding from the Infrastructure and Efficiency Grant each year.
“We give billions of rands. I think this year it is just over R3bn. We are to get new money from the National Treasury.”
According to Nzimande, the goal is to build student housing owned by colleges and universities. In response to a question regarding the contract given to four service providers to carry out property accreditation, Nzimande stated that a panel of 39 service providers had been chosen to oversee the accreditation of student housing.
He stated that certain requirements such as, skill in developing inspection, electrical engineering, and health and safety officials, were required of these service providers.
When asked about the total number of houses that have been accredited and the number of beds in each facility, Nzimande declared that the follow up query was a completely new and different question.
He went on to say that the accreditation of service providers for student housing was launched by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) in order to make sure students didn’t stay in subpar housing that didn’t meet the standards for a learning environment.
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