The Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training has described the conditions of student housing in some of the historically black institutions as appalling, unhygienic and not suitable for human habitation.

Universities such as Limpopo’s Turfloop Campus, University of Venda, Fort Hare and Mangosuthu University of Technology are among the worst institutions in terms of the conditions of student residence as compared to other institutions such as the University of Cape Town, Rhodes University and Pretoria University.

These findings are from a report by the ministerial committee for the review of student housing at South African Universities presented before Parliament yesterday. The ministerial committee also found that there was maladministration of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme funding for student accommodation at several universities. This situation is described as one the direct causes of suffering of students at these institutions.

The Committee on Higher Education and Training called on the Department to intervene to ensure that this situation is attended to as a matter of urgency. “As the oversight committee we are disturbed by the state of housing conditions for students in some institutions which we believe jeopardise their academic endeavors.

“Much as we call for no financial exclusion of any student, we equally call for better living and hygienic conditions for all students in order to be effective and academically achieving,” said Ms Nomalungelo Gina, acting Chairperson of the Committee.

She added: “We will continue to inspect these conditions during our oversight visits to these institutions to monitor progress of addressing the crisis. We also recommend that universities should prioritise all first-year students when allocating accommodation because they form part of the targeted and vulnerable group to criminal activities when residing off-campus”.

Meanwhile, the government has allocated more than R1,6 billion for student housing with R1,4 billion going to the historically disadvantaged institutions.