GEORGE NEWS - Some George homeowners who provide accommodation to students of the Nelson Mandela University (NMU) George Campus have not received payment for housing the students from the university since March, when the students arrived.

An unhappy landlord who wanted to remain anonymous said he has to provide cleaning services, Wi-Fi and basic services such as water and electricity for the students. Some landlords depend on the income from the rental to cover bond payments.

"It has been three months that payment has not been forthcoming. It is making it extremely difficult for us. We cannot provide a free service. We have costs to cover. Complaints with the university have been to no avail," said the complainant.

In response, George Campus communications manager Milisa Piko said system difficulties during the payment process led to the delay in the overall payment to service providers. 

"These included the transition from the extended academic period to the new academic year, the delayed confirmation on funded students and subsequently the delays in registrations."

She said service providers whose payments have not come through, should continue contacting the university to keep track of the process.

'Payment no later than 4 June'

"There is constant interaction between the department of student housing and the finance department to update one another on the progress of the payments. All payments that have been put on the system roll will be ready for payment no later than 4 June."

She said all service providers have been paid in full for three months - March, April and May.

"In instances where it was picked up that they were not paid in full, the relevant department is alerted, and these get rectified."

The university payment system is set up such that when students register, a payment can be made for such a student, even before NSFAS (National Student Financial Aid Scheme) makes a payment to the university.

"Basically no upfront payment is made to the university. It must also be appreciated that NMU is among the very few if not the only university in South Africa that acts as conduit for payments to owners of private housing. 

"The standard practice is that the allocations are made to students who are then expected to make rental payments directly to service providers. However, Mandela University has in good faith opted for a system that would alleviate challenges that would emanate from non-payments from students," said Piko.

"The situation and the position we find ourselves in is regrettable and we are cognisant of the effect the late payments had on our service providers. We are committed to working together to deal with some of the challenges experienced during this period. The lessons learned during this period will help all involved in improving the processes, more especially taking into consideration the uncertainty of the future developments because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic."

Piko said their emphasis going forward is to optimise the use of technology.

"In this, the department has already started having conversations with the university ICT department to identify how the off-campus accommodation systems can be streamlined to meet the ever-changing aspects of the student accommodation environment," said Piko.

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