A student from Walter Sisulu University (WSU) has approached the high court in Bhisho after claiming the provincial government failed to honour a bursary agreement that was meant to cover her studies at the university.
Yonwaba Nabhanti filed an urgent application against the premier of the Eastern Cape and WSU, asking the court to declare the premier’s “failure to honour the terms of the office of the premier (Eastern Cape) bursary South Africa 2024″ as “unlawful and unconstitutional”.
The bursary awarded in April 2024 was meant to pay for Nabhanti’s tuition and other expenses for 2024, 2025 and 2026. However, according to the amended notice of motion, the premier’s office “has not paid for the applicant’s tuition fees and other ancillary expenses for the years 2024 and 2025″.
Her legal counsel, Luyolo Sanele Ntikinca, certified the matter as urgent, saying: “Unless the first respondent pays the outstanding amount on or before February 27 2026, the applicant will not be permitted to register with the university for her final year.”
The university has extended its registration deadline to February 27, and made clear no further extensions will be granted after February 27.
Nabhanti is seeking an order compelling the premier’s office to settle the outstanding fees so she can register for her diploma in building technology at the Buffalo City campus.
She also wants the university to be directed to allow her to enrol “within one day of service of this order”.
The matter is set down for hearing on February 24. Nabhanti’s attorneys, Mihla Hanise Attorneys, have asked the court to order the premier and any opposing respondents to pay costs “on an attorney and own client scale, such costs to include costs occasioned by the employment of three counsel”.
TimesLIVE
Gugulethu Mashinini
www.timeslive.co.za