CPUT's accommodation crisis deepens, with first-year students sleeping in kitchens and study rooms

A month into the academic year at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT), more than 30 first-year students are sleeping in kitchens and study rooms at a contracted residence.

Without access to proper storage or refrigeration, they say they are spending more than R500 a week on takeaways — compounding the stress of trying to prepare for classes without stable accommodation.

Daily Maverick spoke with National Student Financial Aid Scheme-funded students, who asked to remain anonymous. They said the university had placed them in temporary accommodation, which now appeared to have become permanent.

Read more: Students moved to temporary housing as CPUT faces ongoing accommodation crisis

Depressing conditions

A first-year Bachelor of Nautical Science student who has slept in a kitchen at CPUT for weeks detailed the depressing conditions.

“I stayed outside the District Six campus; I was moved the same day I arrived. We are now staying here, and there are many of us. Since I study in Granger Bay, and I have a uniform, I struggle with things like ironing.

“When we need to bathe, we have to do everything in the shower and change clothes there. Our groceries got messed up quickly. My Rama [margarine] got melted. This is stressful because when you are on campus, you just think of the place you are going to come back to, and you cannot focus on school.

“We are temporary here, and nothing changes on our Student Online Services ... and there are cockroaches here,” said the student.

Students can track whether they have been placed at a residence via the Student Online Services portal.

Students’ belongings are scattered across the rooms they live in. Snacks like chips and soft drinks, and essential foods like amasi and eggs are placed next to sinks and bins. Mattresses line the rooms, and students have to tread carefully to avoid stepping on their fellows.

A first-year Retail Management student detailed his experience since he arrived at the accommodation two weeks ago.

“I stayed in a room for maybe three days; after that, we were moved because the rightful people of the room arrived. So we were forced to take a mattress and sleep here [the kitchen].

“I just leave my clothes and go to school, worrying that someone might come in and take anything they want. I have been eating takeaways, and the money runs out,” said the student.

A first-year student studying Information Technology, who shares a study room with more than 10 other women, said, “Living here, there’s no comfort, and even if they change clothes, there are cameras, so you have to go to the toilet.

“You cannot buy food. I arrived with money here, but now I do not have it. They [the housing department] sent me an email asking whether I have a place to stay or not, so they can place me.”

The university has been faced with an accommodation crisis for years. In previous academic years, students would sleep outside the university’s District Six and Bellville campuses.

Read more: Students sleep in streets as Cape Peninsula University of Technology faces housing crisis

CPUT’s spokesperson, Lauren Kansley, said the temporary accommodation was meant to be a stopgap to assist students as they pursued private accommodation. She acknowledged that it was not good for students to live like this.

“It is also an expensive exercise that costs the university hundreds of thousands to house individuals who very often do not have any funding secured. We do not want to have students in the common areas of residences; however, when individuals arrive late, over weekends, with no accommodation in place, we do what we can to assist.

“Having students squat in common areas of residences also negatively impacts the wellness and academic success of the legitimately placed students who now cannot access those spaces,” said Kansley.

‘We cannot assist everyone’

Kansley said the institution had placed nearly everyone that it could, and students in temporary accommodation had to source their own housing, a fact that had been communicated to them.

“The issue is that many of the temp-placed students are not funded or not eligible for placement into residences. Unfortunately, it is a reality that we have done everything we can to assist the legitimate and bona fide students who are funded and eligible.

“We cannot assist everyone, however, and we appeal to those who are unplaced to access a private accommodation vendor and get themselves placed ASAP,” said Kansley.

During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) last month, homeless CPUT students protested outside the Cape Town City Hall, demanding that the minister of higher education and training, Buti Manamela, avail himself and witness the conditions students faced.

The students walked with Manamela, the EFF’s Sihle Lonzi and other politicians to a private accommodation, eKhaya, in Adderley Street.

Kansley said, “CPUT has been very grateful to vendors like eKhaya who have willingly accepted students, on very short notice, into temporary accommodation. There are always students who arrive with no accommodation in place. Permanent placement into eKhaya and other private accommodation vendors is an agreement between the student and the vendor since that is a private accommodation offering.”

The EFF’s Lonzi said that student housing was a national crisis.

“Students at CPUT had to come and sleep outside because there was no student accommodation, and it’s not an issue isolated to CPUT alone; it’s actually happening across the country, where you have a limited number of student accommodations to accommodate all the students.” DM