Students at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) are taking charge of their future with the relaunch of the Ikamvalethu Fund, which aims to raise funds to assist the university’s students facing financial difficulties.  

The iKamvalethu Million Campaign seeks to raise R1 million by June 16 – Youth Day, 2025 – which will be used for student financial aid at registration, and emergency relief, and.

Addressing students at the launch of the Ikamvalethu Million Campaign in front of the Jakes Gerwel Hall, Student Representative Council (SRC)  President Mcntosh Khasembe said the launch was not a publicity stunt but a turning point.

“The Ikamvalethu Fund was born out of a dream. A belief is that the children of the working class, single mothers, and those from rural schools and under-resourced townships can and must have access to quality education. Not as a favour but as a right.” 

“But let me be frank with you, and I want to be very honest.That dream, at some point, died. The last meaningful impact of the Ikamvalethu Fund was in 2018, seven years ago. In those seven years, I want to ask: how many students were blocked? How many graduates sat at home with degrees on hold because of historic debt? How many of our brothers and sisters went to bed hungry, walked kilometres to campus, and suffered in silence? This is not just data. These are people’s lives, they are names and they have dreams that have been deferred,” said Khasembe. 

The SRC has called on each student to contribute R50, once off, to the fund by going to https://uwc.devman.co.za/devman/uwc/IkamvaLethu/, or signing a pledge of R5 a month for 10 months to be debited to your fee account.

The SRC President said university students, as a collective, became too familiar with asking and begging corporate and government donors for financial support. 

“Don’t get me wrong, external donations matter, and we welcome them, but what message are we sending out to the world if we’re not willing to invest in ourselves,” said Khasembe.

The SRC estimated that if 22 thousand students each gave R50, R1.1 million could be raised very easily.

“It could be the difference between a blocked registration and a graduation photo on your mother’s wall,” said Khasembe.

One of the students listening to Khasembe had reservations about the campaign and its intentions, questioning the selection criteria which would be applied to aid deserving students.

But Khasembe, in earshot, allayed her fears and said that the SRC has followed a “rigorous process”.

“We will select students who are unfunded and academically deserving. It will be different cohorts; the first cohort will be students who have been promoted, have never failed, are unfunded, and have accumulated debt.

“Those are primarily the students that we would target for the first phase of our programme,” said Khasembe.

He said the fund would also prioritise students who have accumulated debt and live in private accommodation due to their debt increasing over time.

The SRC leader added that another amount will be allocated towards crucial academic support. “We are going to be launching a programme to give out free course readers for identified programmes -high-impact modules,” said Khasembe.

Acting Rector and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Jose Frantz commended the students on this initiative and emphasised that they were running a SMART campaign.

“The S in the campaign has a specific goal of alleviating student debt; M – measurable in that we will know if we reach the target of R1,1 million; A- achievable if every student just donated R50 we will reach the target; R – relevant in that financial difficulties are a reality at UWC; and T- timebound, in that the target must be reached by June 16, national Youth Day.” 

Prof Frantz challenged her office team to contribute to the fund and pledged to make a contribution herself.  

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