This is despite them having had completed the theoretical portion of their degrees in 2020 already. On Monday 29 March, the disgruntled group, represented by varied student unions, shut down parts of the institution in East London in an effort to get management to come to the table regarding their concerns over unfinished clinical hours which are required by the South African Nursing Council (SANC). 

The coronavirus pandemic and subsequent closures of institutions of higher learning during lockdown resulted in the final year nursing students not being able to complete the required 4000 hours of clinical work, come the end of March 2021 to graduate and begin working.

According to a letter from the Student Representative Council Campus Premier’s office in OFM News’ possession, Fort Hare is allegedly forcing the students to re-register to complete the missing hours, irrespective of the fact that the bulk of the students have already received employment offers from hospitals and clinics in the country, and are meant to respond to the offers by 1 April. This has effectively placed them in an awkward catch-22 situation. 

SRC East London Campus Premier, Sibusiso Zonke, blames the institution for the debacle, adding that they never allocated the students these “missing clinical hours” and declined suggestions that the students should moonlight to make up for the time missed.

The University of Fort Hare is yet to respond to media queries on the matter for an update.

Meanwhile, the students cannot be accommodated on campus because it's already fully booked and they are also not receiving any funding from the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) to cover the living expenses for the extra academic year.

The incident comes on the back of reports by the Daily Dispatch that a 25-year-old third-year student at the institution, originally from Zimbabwe, is now suing the university for over R5 million after he was deregistered and encountered issues pertaining to the clinical hours mentioned above.

This is a developing story.

OFM News