IN a move to safeguard the futures of young South Africans, the deputy minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Mimmy Gondwe, recently spearheaded a campaign to expose and shut down bogus colleges in Durban.

During her two-day awareness campaign, Thursday and Friday, Dr Gondwe was accompanied by various stakeholders including eThekwini Municipality Governance and Human Capital Committee chairperson, Councillor Nkosenhle Madlala. KwaZulu-Natal, with the second-largest student concentration after Gauteng, faces significant challenges due to the proliferation of unregistered private colleges and those offering unaccredited programmes.

The Durban CBD, which has a high number of private colleges, was the target of the campaign with Dr Gondwe highlighting the dire consequences of studying at these fraudulent colleges. She said, “Some of the learners are the only hope for their families. Their parents invest in their education so that their child can be qualified and have a successful career tomorrow. Now, if a learner studies via a bogus college, they are effectively robbed of an opportunity to gain a legitimate qualification and employment opportunities. It is also robbing the student and their parents of hard-earned money.”

Also Read: Warning to matriculants: Beware of unregistered institutions

Recognising the importance of tackling this issue of mushrooming colleges, the campaign is a collaborative government effort involving the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, the Department of Employment and Labour, and the Department of Home Affairs. Dr Gondwe and stakeholders visited several private colleges in Durban’s Monty Naicker and West Street, revealing a mix of registered institutions with compliance issues and unregistered colleges.

“As a university city, we have a responsibility to ensure that the thousands of people who come to our city to access higher education register with recognised and legal institutions. Durban is a university city because it is home to the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology, and numerous TVET colleges, as well as several private institutions of higher learning,” said Madlala.

During the oversight visit, students seized the opportunity to voice their concerns over fee payments and the lack of refunds from these private institutions. Dr Gondwe responded by instructing officials to assist all affected students and reaffirmed the crucial role of private higher education institutions, provided they operate within legal parameters.

“They are allowed to operate, but they have to operate within lawful parameters, and that is what we are trying to ensure that their operations are legal and are registered with us and that the programmes they’re offering are accredited by our quality assurance bodies, Umalusi, QCTO and the Council on Higher Education,” said Dr Gondwe.

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