Two Eastern Cape universities have, incredibly, slashed their debt over the past year, the Daily Dispatch reported on its website on Monday.
Fort Hare’s debt is down from R78-million to R15-million, and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University’s (NMMU) debt is down from R101,9-million at the end of 2005 to R15-million.
Both universities are confident their current debts will be slashed further when students arrive for registration.
NMMU spokesperson Roslyn Baatjies said the institution will do everything possible to recover the money, and will only write off a debt when its collectors confirm that it cannot be recovered by a student wanting to register this year.
She would not release the student debt figure for last year as it would present a ”skewed picture due to the fact that many students will pay their debt when they register for this year”.
However, students who do not pay will not be allowed to register this year and their results will also not be released until they do pay, said Baatjies.
The university, a result of the merger of University of Port Elizabeth, Vista University and Port Elizabeth Technikon, inherited more than half of the R101,9-million debt from the three merging partners.
Fort Hare spokesperson Luthando Bara said although many of its students are from poor backgrounds, the institution remains confident that they would settle their debt as they understand the institution’s reliance on student fees.
”We will seek ways of assisting individual cases of financially indigent students who perform academically, as we used to do in the past,” Bara said.
Meanwhile, Walter Sisulu University, born two years ago out of a merger between the University of Transkei and Border and Eastern Cape technikons, is still owed R106-million, and 1 528 students still owe Rhodes University about R3,3-million for the period 1995 to 2006. — Sapa