Durban – {Victims of apartheid finally have a chance to get financial assistance towards their education, 17 years after the Truth and Reconciliation Commission recommended that that happen. } <\/p>\n
The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development recently published notices calling for those declared by the TRC to be victims of apartheid to apply for educational assistance. <\/p>\n
The regulations to provide the grants only came into effect in November when President Jacob Zuma gave his approval. <\/p>\n
The Khulumani Support Group, an organisation of victims and survivors of apartheid, plans to go to court to challenge the regulations, as they exclude some of the TRC-identified victims. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe offenders are getting presidential pardons, but victims are being re-victimised and given false hope with the delayed education assistance for which most are likely not to qualify because of the stringent conditions,\u201d said Khulumani\u2019s national director, Dr Marjorie Jobson. <\/p>\n
For basic education assistance, the applicant qualified if the family\u2019s annual gross household income was less than R132 000. <\/p>\n
To be eligible for higher education and training assistance, the annual gross income of the household must not exceed R198 000. <\/p>\n
The grants would be paid from the President\u2019s Fund, which Khulumani believed had R1.3 billion available. <\/p>\n
Jobson said many of the KwaZulu-Natal victims would not qualify for assistance as they missed their opportunity to testify at the TRC hearings. <\/p>\n
Others have a household income exceeding the stipulated amounts and Jobson said their grandchildren mostly attended non-fee-paying schools. <\/p>\n
The deadline for applications at tertiary institutions had passed, so even those who qualified for assistance might have missed the opportunity to study this year. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome victims have a backlog of outstanding fees and student loans and could really use this support, but government says it will only pay the fees accumulated after a person has qualified for the grant.\u201d <\/p>\n
Pietermaritzburg\u2019s Nicholas Xulu is one of the victims who received a R32 000 one-off reparation in 2004, after his testimony before the TRC. <\/p>\n
Xulu, together with his younger brother, Mkhombiseni Xulu, and some of their friends, was detained for six months in 1988. <\/p>\n
He was doing Grade 8 when he was detained, and he managed to complete his matric only in 2006, at the age of 36. <\/p>\n
His brother never got a chance to finish school, as he went \u201cmissing under mysterious circumstances in 1991\u201d, never to be seen again. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to be a lawyer, so in 2008 I enrolled for a law degree at the University of KZN through the help of some friends, but I didn\u2019t have money to continue studying and all my attempts to secure funding were unsuccessful,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
The father of three hoped the university would still take him for this year\u2019s class should he get the grant. <\/p>\n
\u201cI hope my brother\u2019s daughter also gets the assistance because she endured a lot because of her father not being around. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis grant might be what she and my mother need to help them heal,\u201d said Xulu. <\/p>\n
For more information phone 012 315 1801 or contact www.justice.gov.za. <\/p>\n
Who can qualify? <\/p>\n
– Parents of, or persons who exercise or exercised parental control over, a victim. <\/p>\n
– A person married to a victim under any law, custom or belief. <\/p>\n
– A child of a victim, irrespective of whether or not the child was born of unmarried persons or was legally adopted. <\/p>\n
– Persons to whom a victim has or had a legal or customary duty to support, such as a grandchild of a victim.<\/p>\n
{{IOL News}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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