MUST READ: Finances put municipal bursaries on ice

Nkosi said this resulted in a situation where there were 30 students’ tertiary studies to be funded, but the budgeted amount had not been increased.

February 23, 2018

Bruce Douglas 2 minutes read

Municipal-funded bursaries have been put on ice until finances improve.

The municipality has put its student bursary programme on ice.

With municipal finances in a state of turmoil, Mayor, Makhosini Nkosi and his team decided to suspend bursaries through the so-called Mayoral Budget this year.

This financial aid may be reintroduced if its financial state improves.

During last Thursday’s media briefing, Nkosi said the rationale behind the Mayoral Budget was based on the difficulty found in finding applicants for financial and engineering posts.

He said filling of these posts was always difficult.

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“We decided to create a bursary solely catering for the finance and engineering qualifications, with the understanding those people can come and work for us.”

Nkosi said the “very transparent” process involved forming a committee of officials to receive applications and award students based on academic performance and financial situation.

Money would then be allocated through the Mayoral Budget.

“What happened is that we started by taking about 10 students at a particular budget, and the following year another 10, yet we find the budget was not increased.”

Nkosi said this resulted in a situation where there were 30 students’ tertiary studies to be funded, but the budgeted amount had not been increased.

This created a financial problem for the municipality.

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“Ideally we wanted a situation where we’d start – because it was a full bursary – with a student from the beginning until completion of the qualification.”

Nkosi said the municipality didn’t want to be seen spending R5-million on education, when money could have been spent on basic service delivery issues.

He said there had to be a balance between bursaries and its mandate.

“For now, we are all aware we are in a dire financial situation. We are therefore not in a position to issue new bursaries, and have to fund students in the system. We hope our financial situation at some point will improve and we can continue in this act of good will by the municipality.”