This year's edition of the annual Inter-varsity sports event due to be held at the University of Fort Hare this weekend has been postponed due to student protests.
This year's edition of the annual Inter-varsity sports event due to be held at the University of Fort Hare this weekend has been postponed due to student protests.
Students at the University of Fort Hare (UFH) are back in classes following two weeks of protest. Students protested against a shortfall in National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) funding for second semester registration and residence fees.
This led to the University sending home all of the students on its Alice campus on 31 July. Speaking to Grocott's, Zintle Filtane, spokesperson of the university said, “In terms of lectures and studying everything is back to normal, and students are attending [class]as per usual.
"In terms of the demands made by the students, talks between management and the students representatives are still going on”.
The University's Vice Chancellor Dr Tom Mvuyo said: “We have had student unrest on campus in Alice for the past two weeks.
"There have been discussions amongst the officials of all our universities suggesting the post-ponement "in view of the situation, we kindly recommend that Inter-Varsity be postponed”.
According to UFH Student Representative Council (SRC) secretary-general Andile Gama the demands of the students have not been entirely met.
"Students have been given R500 for a period of three months, contrary to the R500 for four months which we wanted,” he said.
He added that at this point no new date for Inter-varsity had been set.
