Pretoria – South African students studying in Russia have complained that their pleas for help, over an extended period, seem to be falling on deaf ears.
The group of more than 200 students from Mpumalanga, studying at 11 institutions of higher education in Russia, specialise in areas including aviation, engineering, medicine and information technology, funded by the province.
While some of the students said they faced expulsion from the Russian institutions after their stipends, accommodation and tuition fees were not paid timeously by the Mpumalanga Education Department, others allege that they have already been barred from attending classes.
Speaking to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, one of the student leaders, Innocent Mpofu, said efforts to expedite the payments had been unsuccessful.
“We have reached out to the department, we have been sending emails, sending lists to them, that these are the students that are still in the dark. We haven’t received anything and they keep on saying the same thing, telling us about governmental processes, that they are working on it, giving us dates which we can’t even trust because a lot of times when given dates by the department, they always pass,” he said.
“It then becomes a problem for us leaders of the students, because it feels like we are maybe selling our students, it is just sad. It really is sad because we kept on being promised things and no one is really fulfilling those promises.”
Mpofu said a Russian state university had barred the South African students from attending classes unless they had proof of payment.
“For example, students from Saratov State University, they have been expelled. I think the majority of them, especially the medical students, have been given a notice that they will not be able to attend any classes until they provide receipts (showing) that they have paid for their tuition,” said Mpofu.
“These are things that we have communicated to the department. Of course, we are being told about Dirco (Department of International Relations and Co-operation) and all of that stuff while we still not being (given) a clear direction as to how is that money actually going to be transferred to those institutions with the sanctions in place.”
Earlier this week, the Mpumalanga Department of Education reportedly transferred R28 million to Dirco for the students’ bill.
Mpumalanga Education MEC Bonakele Majuba was quoted by TimesLive as saying the money had been transferred to Dirco and that the national department was in communication with the universities in Russia.
IOL