Zuko Komisa
Damelin, Icesa City Campus, Lyceum College, and City Varsity deregistered.
The department’s director general, Nkosinathi Sishi, canceled the registrations because the private entities had not submitted audited financial statements since 2020, according to a statement published in the Government Gazette on Friday.
Point of View with Phemelo Motene spoke to Higher Education Department Spokesperson, Veli Mbheli who shared a way forward especially for enrolled students of the affected institutions.
Listen to the full conversation here:
According to Mbheli, private postsecondary institutions must provide financial statements to the government as part of the accountability process by the Higher Education Act’s provisions.
The largest private education provider in Southern Africa, Educor, owns Damelin, CityVarsity, Icesa City Campus, and Lyceum College. It oversees ten educational brands over more than sixty campuses and locations both domestically and abroad.
“For the financial years 2021/2022 the four colleges whose registration has been cancelled did not comply. That was the one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is that there’s been serious governance failure and numerous complaints we go from the students relating to how they are being treated and how many of their grievances remain unresolved. There have also been some concerns about how the teaching in some of their campuses and some of their sites.”
Higher Education Department Spokesperson, Veli Mbheli
Furthermore, Minister of Higher Education Blade Nzimande has said that the group has been “misleading” about its enrollment statistics, stating that there were 50,000 students enrolled in four different universities while the number is slightly over 13,000.
READ NEXT: Jackie Phamotse sentenced to 2-years house arrest and R30K fine
