Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said his department had made an application to the National Treasury for funding to build university and college-owned student accommodation.
Nzimande said they took the step because there were challenges regarding the government’s dependency on private sector student accommodation.
Responding to oral questions in the National Assembly on Wednesday, the minister said every year the department has a budget from the Infrastructure and Efficiency Grant.
“We give billions of rands. I think this year it is just over R3bn. We are to get new money from the National Treasury,” he said.
Nzimande said the aim was to build university and college-owned student accommodation.
“This thing of private sector accommodation is causing us endless headaches. We are engaging the National Treasury to actually increase the amount of money through which we can build accommodation that is Nzimande wants more money for student accommodation owned by our universities.
“Already we have made an application to the National Treasury. I have got the list of the number of beds that we have applied for throughout the 26 public universities as well as 50 TVET colleges,” he said.
“One of the things I am going to do, as the sixth administration comes to an end, will be the total reliable calculation of how much that will cost so that the seventh administration knows exactly how much money we need, and for how long, to be able to build university and college-owned student accommodation. We have got that in our plans already,” he said.
Asked about the contract awarded to four service providers to conduct accreditation of properties, Nzimande said the panel for accreditation of student accommodation was appointed consisting of 39 service providers.
“The total paid to date for 2022-33 amounts to R1.5 million.”
He said the service providers had to meet certain requirements, such as skills, in developing inspection, electrical engineering, and health and safety officials.
“They were also required to have experience in inspection of properties and a footprint in their region of choice as well as sufficient resources.”
When asked about the total number of properties that have been accredited and the number of beds in each property, Nzimande complained that the follow-up query was a completely new question.
“The original question asked about the monetary value awarded to four service providers. I don’t have that answer now. It is a new question. It’s actually different,” he said.
“Don’t try to score cheap political points by violating procedures for asking questions. I am more than happy to answer that question. Don’t campaign with questions in Parliament,” he said.
He later explained that the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) piloted the accreditation of service providers for student accommodation to ensure students did not stay in below-par accommodation that was in variance with the required learning environment.
“As government we have a clear policy and criteria for doing that. What NSFAS is doing, they sought permission from me as you can’t pay money without accommodation that is up to standard.”
Nzimande also said there were many “chancers” who built something equal to shacks.
Cape Times