CONCERN AS STUDENTS FACE HEFTY RENT HIKES

Varsities maintain rises of more than 10% necessary

CRIPPLING residence fee hikes of more than 10% will face Joburg tertiary students during their university registration.

The universities have insisted that prices needed to rise for the residences to remain viable.

South Point, the company that provides 15 rental buildings for students in Braamfontein, said it would increase its prices by an average 5.95% – with shared rooms jumping 8.18% from R3 975 to R4 300 per student a month.

Last week, South Point came under criticism from current and former residents online for its rise in prices, with accusations that it was “exploiting desperate and poor students”.

Students who spoke to The Star on Thursday also complained about being cramped in “small, cardboard-walled rooms” with decaying bathroom facilities for “exorbitant” prices.

Mpilo Cele wrote on Twitter that South Point had “nonsensical buildings where there were no facilities and, as a student, you always have to buy data because there’s only one wi-fi connection per corridor”.

“This is nonsense,” Cele complained. However, South Point chief executive Ndumiso Davidson said that the average 5.95% hike was the lowest increase in 10 years and was necessitated by a steep rise in municipal costs, such as electricity (13%), water (10%) and sewerage (10%) – which he said constituted the bulk of its operational costs.

“Another misconception that we have unsuccessfully tried to combat is the notion that rental increases are driven by changes to the product or service offerings.

“Simply phrased, year-on-year rentals are not adjusted on the basis of any changes to the product offering but, rather, on the basis of the increase in the cost of supplying the same services year-on-year,” Davidson said.

Davidson added, though, that South Point would be embarking on improvements this year, including increasing wi-fi data from 20GB to 60GB free for each student, as well as upgrading the bathroom and entertainment facilities.

Wits University has published its residence rates for the 2020 academic year, which show increases ranging from 7.5% to 10.2%.

The steep rises were found in the cheaper residences with shared rooms and communal facilities.

For example, the annual fee of a double bedroom with communal facilities at Yale Village rose from R47 064 last year to R51 813 – where the university said 80% of this amount (R41 813) had to be paid by the end of March.

Basil Mugwena, Wits University’s director of campus housing, also stressed the need to increase fees to maintain operations and ensure its buildings met the minimum norms and standards of public institutions.

“The university has many initiatives to assist students who face financial burdens due to the impact of fee increases, such as the ‘missing-middle fee increase concessions’ to cover students who are ‘too rich’ to qualify for NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) funding, yet cannot put up with their financial obligations to the university,” he said.

University of Johannesburg spokesperson Herman Esterhuizen said the institution would hike tuition fees by 5.4% and residence prices by 7.4% to maintain facilities, assist need students and procure research equipment and other assets.

“All these expenses are subject to upward cost pressures, inflation and foreign exchange fluctuations. Thus fees increases are necessary to allow the university to fund its operations and to be financially sustainable.” |