Forced to take cold showers and go without proper food after the power went off, some Nelson Mandela University students returned home this week while others persevered, waiting up to two hours for a chance to cook.
Complaints about the widespread power outage saw the university suspend academic activities on Tuesday.
Since the weekend, some on-campus students and those living in Summerstrand and Humewood have resorted to buying two-burner stoves.
They carry these stoves, along with their remaining food supplies, to the university’s indoor sports centre, where they access backup electricity to cook, take a warm shower, and study for upcoming tests and assignments.
The institution has spent about R828,000 on 40,000 litres of fuel at the affected campuses.
NMU spokesperson Primarashni Gower said they recognised the difficult situation many of the students and staff were in.
“We are trying our best to mitigate the situation,” she said.
“All residences have gas stoves with fire extinguishers and we are trying to source more.
“There are also stoves at the sport centre on the south campus, which is open 24 hours.
“We have generators and gas stoves so residence students are able to cook.
“Students are also cooking when the power comes on for two hours, to take pressure off the gas stoves.”
Gower said the institution would re-asses the suspension of classes today.
On Tuesday evening, a group of students were seen walking in Admiralty Way with their groceries.
Having already spent their allowances on monthly supplies before the power outage, they made their way to some of the university’s residences to prepare what food they had left.
The power outage started when four transmission towers on the city’s major Chelsea-Arlington-Summerstrand line, corroded by rust, collapsed on Friday, cutting power across 14 southwestern suburbs.
The decision to suspend academic activities came after several student organisations wrote to NMU’s management at the weekend, expressing displeasure at how the situation was handled since the lights went out.
The organisations include the student representative council (SRC) led by the EFF student command, DA Student Organisation (Daso) and the Pan Africanist Student Movement of Azania (Pasma).
In his letter, NMU SRC president Yiva Makrwede said the continuation of academics set students up for failure as they had no Wi-Fi and provision for lighting at their residences.
Makrwede acknowledged efforts by the university to provide a daily meal and the opening of libraries.
“However, the students on the ground justifiably feel ignored and set for failure by the university’s approach to proceed with the academic calendar.
“The university should have cancelled all academic activities immediately after the announcement by the municipality.”
Makrwede said with more than 10,000 students living in on-campus residences and off-campus housing in Summerstrand, the need to carry pots, stoves and food items, and then wait two hours to cook showed they were struggling to meet academic deadlines.
“The SRC firmly demands an immediate halt to all academic activities before students decide to do so themselves.”
In response, NMU implemented several humanitarian interventions, including donating R100,000 to support students not funded by NSFAS, establishing kitchen centres equipped with gas stoves, and providing transportation between residences through protection services officers.
Announcing the suspension of lectures until tomorrow, NMU’s emergency management team said in a statement on Tuesday that it made the decision following “an appeal from the SRC, input from the deanery and feedback from the operations team”.
“However, work-integrated learning, school-based learning and experiential learning will continue.
“The leadership team is in consultation with the registrar and deanery to assess the impact of the suspension of lectures on the academic calendar.”
Libraries, laboratories and other facilities would remain open during this period.
NMU spokesperson Primarashni Gower did not respond to questions by the time of publication.
Honours sociology student and Pasma chair Jeffrey Maswanganyi said that since Friday, students had flocked to the indoor sports centre to study, cook and charge laptops and phones.
“Walking around campus at night has become unsafe for students.
“All [NSFAS] funded students received their allowances last week and many bought groceries which have gone off.
“If you walk along the corridors in the residences there is a bad stench of all the meat that must be thrown away.”
On Wednesday, third-year BSc dietetics student Nonjabulo Cabashe was found boiling water at the sports centre.
Cabashe said the past few days had been tough.
“We have to come to boil water and shower which is not practical for everyone because other residences are far away and it gets dark in the evenings.
“Some would go study because there is light but many of us can’t study in a crowded and loud place, which makes it difficult because we had tests and assignments to submit.”
Cabashe said she used her allowance on fast food and was concerned that she would not have enough money to buy groceries once power was restored.
Third-year pharmacy student Siboniso Zungu said some students had contracted fevers due to cold showers.
“I bought groceries last week and all perishable items went off, which is a waste of money.
“I don’t know how I will survive the month when power is back up because I had to throw away everything.”
Zungu said some students, primarily from the province, had returned home.
While he would have liked to return to KwaZulu-Natal, it was too expensive for him.
“Being at home would have helped save money, I am now wasting on buying fast food because cooking has been a struggle.”
A staff member at the sports centre, who did not want to be named, said the past few days had been chaotic with students flocking to the facility.
“Every morning and evening students flock here, some study and others play sports.
“Others would be cooking with their small stoves and charging phones.
“The problem I saw is that there are not enough plugs for students to use so there would be long queues and commotions about who should use the plugs next.”
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