NOT even subsidised bus fares are sacred for some FET students, if Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande is to be believed.
Yesterday Nzimande complained that while the government offered bus fares to underprivileged students at FETs, some attended class only to collect the money and disappear.
“They are now treating these bus fares that we offer them as social grants and when it is closer to exam time they are the very culprits who cause destruction because they were not prepared for exams,” he told pupils attending a Msunduzi career expo in Elandskop.
Nzimande condemned last month’s acts of vandalism on the Umgungundlovu FET campuses. He said the government would push for the students arrested for vandalism to be refused bail.
The government was “taken aback” by students who torched a library and a car while demanding a laboratory.
“… Instead of delivering on demands, we now have to fix the vandalised facilities before we can address their problems,” said Nzimande.
Twenty-six students were arrested after 150 students burnt a library and set a car alight on the Msunduzi FET campus on April 24, resulting in all classes being cancelled.
The 26 were charged with public violence, malicious damage to property and obstruction of traffic. They were released on bail by the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court.
“If these thugs who vandalise the government facilities do not get bail then it sends a strong message that destruction of government property is a serious matter and they need to stop doing that,” said Nzimande.
The career expo takes place at the city hall today.
