PRETORIA, GAUTENG — Student leaders are intensifying their demands to scrap the NSFAS accommodation funding cap, sparking a national debate over the cost, quality, and regulation of student housing in South Africa. As the student housing crisis deepens, Parliament’s Higher Education Portfolio Committee has intervened, calling for mandatory inspections of all student properties to ensure they meet basic living standards and justify their costs.
The Financial Burden and Misrepresented Positions
At the heart of the dispute is the severe financial shortfall faced by learners. Due to the current funding limits, students are reportedly forced to make out-of-pocket payments of up to R10,000 per month. Landlords, who dictate market rates, have been accused by student leaders of pushing for the removal of the cap simply to overcharge students for accommodations that are largely unconducive for studying.
Amid the backlash, some student representative councils (SRCs) have pushed back against the narrative, stating that their official positions on the matter have been misrepresented in the public domain.
Parliament Intervenes with Mandatory Inspections
To address the deteriorating living conditions, the Higher Education Portfolio Committee has announced a comprehensive review. The Portfolio Committee Chair emphasized that both private and university-owned accommodations must be graded and inspected to verify if the prices charged are actually worth the conditions provided.
Highlighting severe infrastructure failures, the Committee noted that the University of Pretoria, which charges an average of R70,000 per annum, experienced complete water outages for an entire day on two separate occasions in a single week due to burst pipes, forcing students to miss classes. Similarly, at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), private accommodations such as Ekaya were cited as charging exorbitant fees for substandard living environments.
To tackle these systemic issues, a multi-stakeholder meeting has been scheduled for August 28. Attendees will include the student union for TV colleges, university governing institutions, the Estate Agents and Real Estate associations, NSFAS, the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and the Competition Commission to probe potential price collusion.
UCT SRC Vice President Demands Systemic Regulation
Maboletso Letsoalo, Vice President of the University of Cape Town (UCT) SRC, strongly rejected assertions from the Portfolio Committee Chair and the SAS president that only a “small portion” of students are affected by the cap.
“The fact of the matter is there are quite a number of students who are affected by the accommodation cap,” Letsoalo stated. He questioned why poor and working-class students, already identified by NSFAS and DHET as lacking funds, are subjected to shortfalls that unfairly punish them.
Letsoalo pointed out critical flaws in the policy’s initial rollout. When NSFAS implemented the cap in 2023, they were fully aware that many residences charged above the limit, yet they had no rescue plan for students who subsequently could not register or receive their certificates. “They thought they were perhaps trying to fix [exorbitant prices], but the fact of the matter is that has not worked,” he explained.
Shifting the Blame and Addressing Evictions
Rather than solely blaming landlords, Letsoalo argued that the crisis is a systemic failure of regulation. He called on DHET, NSFAS, and the Competition Commission to actively regulate prices and investigate any signs of price collusion or unjustified hike-ups.
“It shouldn’t be a student’s fault or it shouldn’t be the burden of a student to carry the failures of DHET being unable to regulate the prices,” Letsoalo said.
Addressing the threat of evictions, Letsoalo agreed that students need legal protection against being displaced. However, he warned that a safety net against eviction does not solve the root cause. When accommodation providers run into debt and shortages due to funding disputes, they fail to maintain properties, exposing students to dangerous and poorly maintained living environments. Ultimately, he stressed, treating the symptoms without fixing the funding and regulatory framework will only exacerbate the ongoing student housing crisis.
