It has been reported that close to 250 South African students in Russia said they were at risk of evictions as they have not received their monthly stipends from the Mpumalanga Department of Education.
IOL reported on Tuesday that the Mpumalanga Education Department paid R28 million to the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (Dirco) to disburse to the Russian universities for the overdue tuition and accommodation fees for students.
At least 229 students who are furthering their studies in 11 different universities in Russia in the general medicine, engineering, aviation and IT faculties, faced expulsion and deportation as their tuition was unpaid.
According to the department, the international bursary programme initiated in 2016 by the Mpumalanga Human Resource Development Strategy, appointed Green Tutu, trading as Racus, as an implementation agent.
Speaking anonymously to Newzroom Afrika, a medical graduate shared some of the hardships they are currently facing.
“Before we left we had to translate our documents from Russian to English and they were supposed to be responsible for that but we also had hiccups on that as well. Now that we are back we had to borrow money as students from previously disadvantaged backgrounds and they told us that we will be refunded and we still haven’t been refunded,” she said.
“Right now we are at home and we need money to pay the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) so that we can refine these documents now that we are finally able to translate on our own. We have not been able to register with the Health Professions Council Of South Africa (HPCSA).”
She said studying away from home and facing such difficulties at the same time, they also had to deal with Russian landlords saying they will be kicked out of residences.
“Some people ended up homeless because we couldn’t afford to pay the rent and we were still waiting and it was a huge burden,” she said.
South African Medical Association chairperson Mvuyisi Mzukwa said they have noted the trend from the government where they find that there are difficulties in terms of placing students that are coming through government programmes.
‘’We are dealing with the same issue with students who are currently in Cuba. When they had to come back they experienced the same problems in terms of placements.
“I do think it’s justifiably frustrating for those students once they go abroad and you find that they can’t sustain themselves. How do you expect the same students to be concentrated and doing (studies) when they face such hardship? We need to track all those students and our membership department is currently dealing with it.”
“We will invite the government to discuss these matters further,” Mzukwa said.
IOL