Students slam UWC for ‘overpricing laptops’
An entrance to the University of the Western Cape. An entrance to the University of the Western Cape.
Students at the University of the Western Cape have taken to social media to complain about the amount of money the university is charging them for laptops.
They say UWC is charging them “R7000 for a R4500 machine”, despite raising R21 million through the #NoStudentWillBeLeftBehind campaign, which was started to assist students to get laptops.
All institutes of learning have been closed due to the national Coronavirus lockdown and many are now offering online classes.
But SRC president Sasha-Lee Douglas says they never agreed to online learning which started three weeks ago.
She says as yet not a single student received data from the university: “We rejected online learning from the onset. We do not have the infrastructure and suitable learning environment at home. The university has a responsibility to provide resources.”
DISAGREE: SRC Prez Sasha-Lee Douglas
She says it is “unethical” to sell laptops to students which were bought by fundraising money.
“The laptops are sold for R4500 in stores yet they sell it to us for R7000.
“This will come to bite us in 2021 as students won’t be able to register while owing (money).”
UWC IS SELLING LAPTOPS BOUGHT WITH PUBLIC DONATED FUNDS. THEY RECEIVED OVER 30 MILLION IN DONATIONS, BOUGHT 4K LENOVO LAPTOPS AND ARE NOW SELLING THEM TO POOR STUDENTS FOR R7000!!!!!!!! THEY ONLY BOUGHT 7500 LAPTOPS. https://t.co/jW2VAT7uRF
— Pure Au 🍯 (@AnitaMqakelana) May 6, 2020
UWC hou dik with “no student shall be left behind” but then they wanna charge you 7K for a basic laptop lmaooooo 😭😭😭
— athicc ㊙️ (@thiccshinobi) May 6, 2020
Why is UWC charging us for laptops they got with donated money?
— shanell 🇳🇬 🇿🇦 (@SDomike) May 6, 2020
However, UWC spokesperson Gasant Abarder says SRC was consulted about “flexible learning” adding that the funds raised is being used to buy laptops and data.
He said the laptops came as a package deal which includes a bag, and Lenovo Ideapad among others and is well below the R7000 mark.
FLEXIBLE: Gasant Abarder of UWC media
“The costs of the package deal are broken down as follows: laptop R4 449, add delivery R149, add two-year fetch and return warranty of R249, add LTE Modem R700, add Value Added Tax R832.05, which totals R6 379,05.
“The actual cost of the device package will be billed to the student account.”