‘Rodents, hair and spoiled milk’: UCT students slam poor and rotten food at residences [PICS]

Students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) are raising the alarm over the poor quality of food allegedly being served in the university’s residences.

The students have complained of spoiled milk as well as finding hair, insects and plastic in their meals. There are even rodents seen in the dining halls.

This follows an internal investigation led by the South African Students Congress (Sasco), which has sparked calls for an overhaul of UCT’s catering system.

‘UCT food is making us sick’

A student from the Fuller Hall residence, Navia Grey (name changed to protect identity), described the situation as dire, pointing to multiple incidents that have undermined students’ health and dignity.

“There has been food that has been spoiled or found to have rodents in it. Particularly at Rochester House residence, there are rodents in the dining hall,” Grey told The Citizen.

She also noted that students from the Avenue Road residence have complained of “flies coming out of food” and “random little pieces of what seems like it could be rodents”.

Grey recounted how students had experienced “spoiled milk on consecutive days”, along with undercooked or overcooked food.

“I’ve personally found hair in my food […] There were times where the food was simply better not known, because the alternative was to starve.”

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Sasco launches petition

Sasco’s UCT branch launched a petition calling for reforms to the university’s catering service.

“Daily, students are confronted with meals that not only lack nutritional value but are also inconsistent in quality and quantity. The state of catering […] is simply unacceptable,” the petition states.

The student organisation’s recent visits to residence dining halls uncovered widespread dissatisfaction.

According to the petition, complaints included “poor meal variety to rotten food”.

Grey confirmed that a memorandum had been handed over to the university’s housing affairs department during a protest last week, and that Sasco representatives are in discussions with UCT management.

“They will be discussing with management how they can go about this… but I don’t think this is the first time something like this has happened.”

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Health concerns

While few students have admitted to falling ill from the food due to fear of potential backlash, Grey said symptoms such as diarrhoea, nausea, and migraines are common.

“I know of someone who was hospitalised for a week due to food poisoning,” she said, though the exact source could not be confirmed.

Grey stressed that blame should not fall on catering staff but rather on university management.

“It’s not necessarily because of the catering staff, but rather because of UCT catering management. They haven’t put much effort into looking into student preferences,” she said.

The Citizen has reached out to UCT and the department of higher education for comment. This article will be updated should a response be received.

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