Pretoria - Academic activities at the Mmabatho Nursing College are expected to resume on Monday after being shut down for a month due to students' failure to return to the classes.
North West MEC for Health and Social Development Rebecca Kasienyane was forced to shut down the college on 9 July after about 600 nursing students refused to attend classes for four weeks until their demands for uniforms and housing allowances were met by the department.
At the time Kasienyane stated that students would not be paid any uniform allowance, instead, the department would provide students with uniforms inclusive of the packs that students did not receive previously.
"The allowance has been paid to all deserving students and backdated to 1 April 2009 as per recommendations of a task team commissioned by me," Kasienyane said at the time.
Department spokesperson said that the status quo remained with regard to housing allowance and uniform allowance.
"During consultation with Health Council, the department was advised to treat them as students not employees, from next financial year we will be awarding them bursaries instead of employing them first and take them to college," Lekgethwane explained.
