Students with disabilities receive a financial injection

CBI African Cables and VUT delegates

Lungelo Magwaza

Human Resource Operations Manager Mrs Buhle Biyela, together with Mrs Mavis Ndou from CBI Electric: African Cables, visited the Social Justice and Transformation (SJT)Department at the Vaal University of Technology to hand over bursaries worth over R700 000 to 17 students with disabilities. The visit took place on 8 September in the Social Justice and Transformation Boardroom. This brings the total amount of students bursary funding raised by the SJT this year to just over R1 million.

Since the Social Justice and Transformation Department aims at creating an enabling environment for living and learning in VUT, it has been committed to addressing the needs and challenges of these students and to help do away with the barriers they face on a daily basis.

The Department has partnered with CBI Electric in raising funds so that they can help these students with clearing their debts and furthering their education. CBI Electric extended their support by giving the students a R1000 monthly stipend as a token of appreciation for their commitment towards their education.

In return for their support, Mrs Biyela and Mrs Ndou asked for a small favour from the students; that they pass their academic year. CBI does not reward poor performance. Mrs Biyela thanked the students for their perseverance and also offered some words of encouragement to the students to never lose sight of who they are and what they want to achieve in their academic careers.

When asked about how this funding came about, the Director: Social Justice and Transformation, George Mvalo said, “this marks a culmination of a process which started last year when SJT visited CBI Electric: African Cables and could not have come at a better time for the students as they can now concentrate on their studies without having to worry about their fees, thanks to the wonderful partnership between CBI Electric and VUT.” On the uniqueness of the bursary, he said ,” What is unique about this bursary is that not only does it pay for historic debt but students are guaranteed funding until they get their PhDs, as long as they perform”