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Students allege that officials at the Premier's Office have been giving them the runaround whilst making empty promises. 

One of the students, who spoke to OFM News on the basis of anonymity in fear of victimisation, says they have sent numerous letters, emails and made calls to the officials responsible for the pay-out of their tuition fees but all requests fell on deaf ears. The visibly frustrated student says this has put their schooling in serious jeopardy. The student says they only received funding for three months this year and never again received additional funding.

“Firstly, at the beginning of the year, which was February 2022, we were asked by the bursary department to submit all the documents they needed in order to make allocations for each student for the first semester. We received our book, food and rent allowances only for the first 3 months and after that students' accounts got blocked due to the non-payment by the bursary scheme. So each student then individually went to the Office of the Premier in June to ask for clarification as to why these accounts were blocked. Each student was told that the Director-General (DG), Kopung Ralikontsane, had still not signed the letter that gives them the go-ahead to send money to the CUT. From June to September 2022, the DG was still signing this letter. We then grouped ourselves and decided to go to the department to demand some answers. Four officials - OFM News has their names - were all present in the meeting with students and informed them that a certain official, who was present in that particular meeting, had gone to the CUT to meet with the Chief Executive Officer (CFO) to submit the list of students whom will be receiving these allowances. Some of the students were not on the list and he stated that a second list would be sent to the CUT but once again the story changed to 'the DG still needs to sign the letter again'. Students are really tired of going around to those offices because we are being lied to. We even stopped going there and started sending emails and have CC'd up to 15 students per email but these emails are still being ignored by this official. Let’s not forget that we only received three allowances, three payments for the year and we are now heading towards second-semester exams and our semester book allowances are still not paid,” the student adds.

However, the Office of the Premier, Sisi Ntombela, has rejected the claims made by students and described them as untrue. Premier Ntombela’s spokesperson, Palesa Chubisi, in her response to the allegations says it is not true that the DG has yet to sign off papers to enable bursary payments. She says the letters have already been signed and submitted to the CUT per the institution's request to process the release of students’ allowances.

Chubisi says allowances of 58 students were paid for both 2022 semesters, with 5 having double dipping or sponsors, whilst only 13 of them having outstanding invoices and statements from the CUT.

“The intention of the above correspondence was to request advance payments of allowances to the active and qualifying bursary holders of the Free State Provincial Government. It must be noted that no bursar was lied to by the Bursary Management Directorate, this is because they have been kept in the loop. This includes providing them with updates regarding the meetings, including individual challenges, for an example, double dipping (NSFAS), outstanding invoices and so forth. The Office of the Premier is in constant engagement with the CUT regarding the outstanding invoices and statements. Due to financial management controls, payments cannot be made without these documents,” Chubisi adds.

In August 2021, Premier Ntombela said efforts to address funding issues for students relying on the Premier’s Bursary are well on course, and are being addressed following a complaint from students about the non-payment of bursaries. 

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CUT has noted OFM News media inquiry and is yet to respond or give further clarity on the matters raised by students.

OFM News