More than 800 angry students of the Vhembe FET main campus at Sibasa took to the streets and marched to the institution’s main office on Monday morning.

The situation became tense as students started singing freedom songs. Several of them were waving placards with messages, demanding that their results, which have been withheld since the beginning of the year, be released.

The students also demanded that their debts be cleared, as they claimed to have bursaries which were supposed to finance their studies. They claimed that the management had misappropriated the money meant for their bursaries for their own personal use.

Students also claimed that there had been no learning for Level 2 to 4 at the institution since the beginning of the year, as the students did not know whether they had passed or not. They said it would be very difficult for them this year as supplementary exams were supposed to be written next week, but that would be impossible as they did not have their results.

"The situation is confusing here. We do not know where we are as of now. We wake up every morning and come up here to wander around campus with nothing to do. We have been promised on a number of occasions that our results would be released, but that has not happened,” said a student who spoke on condition of anonymity. He said students were very demoralized. It is rumoured that a student had committed suicide after being teased by parents about the results.

"We do not know what to do. We have tried to have an audience with the management of the college, but they always have a way of dodging us,“ said the student.

Students allegedly disrupted classes for those who were attending. Police were called to the scene when the students sang freedom songs and chanted on campus, preventing some from going on with classes.

Out of frustration, the students tried to march to the CEO’s office, but were stopped from doing so by police, who told them it was illegal to march without permission. A member of the SRC said they were operating under threatening conditions and they were also receiving threatening calls from people who told them to stop what they were doing as it would cost the jobs of the management of the institution.

‘We are being harassed by these faceless people and we are forced to operate under cover. We will not be threatened, and we will work until our demands are met. We cannot just wait until a date we do not know. These people should just release our results and let us proceed with our academic year,” he said.

The other point of contention was the fact that they were told that they owed money, even though they knew they had full bursaries. This led them to believe that their money had been used for something else.

College CEO Dr JG Tshifularo said it was regrettable that students had to march after management´s having had meetings with them. “I believe this is something else and not results. We have had several meetings where we deliberated on this issue. At some stage, we also phoned the relevant department, and they know exactly what is happening. Someone somewhere is pushing an agenda, using the students,” he said.

Tshifularo said the issue of results affected most of the FETs in the country and that the department was busy solving the imatter. On the issue of bursaries, he said all who qualified had had their accounts paid off and he did not know of any money that had not been used for its intended purpose. “Our books are clear. We can account for every cent, and we are very sure that not a cent was misused. Anybody with a problem could come and see our books; we have nothing to hide,” he said.

“My record is clean. I have served this department with distinction and I always put the interests of the student first. I have no reason to withhold their results,” he said.