TUT Education Students Say Hotel Accommodation Is a Former Brothel With Blood Stains on Beds

Pearl Nicodemus

The Victoria Lodge turned out to be cheap accommodation
rather than a proper hotel the students had been promised.

Tshwane University of Technology education students have just returned from what they say was promised to be an educational trip with accommodation in a nice hotel but turned out to be a week of confusion with dirty run down accommodation and beds with blood stains on them.

On arrival, the students completing education diplomas in Accounting and Entrepreneurship realised that their residence for a few days was cheap accommodation with leaking ceilings, wet carpets and cracked walls. Some of their beds had blood stains with no blankets. They say the manager of the Victoria Lodge told them he could only provide just eight blankets.

Students found leaking toilets
and big groups had to share showers.

Toilets were also not working properly with six students having to share a room. Later they also heard that the accommodation was a former brothel.

The students say this was a far cry from what they were told when they paid R250 each for the trip as they were instructed not to bring any bedding.

The bus they were travelling on broke down several times before reaching Durban and some say if anything had happened to them on the road there is nothing they could have done because they hadn’t been asked to sign indemnity forms.

When they realised the condition they would be staying under they tried to locate the trip organiser identified only as Mr Makgae but he was nowhere to be found.

An outraged student who doesn’t want to be identified says Mr Makgae “was never available. When we called him he would make appointments and then not pitch. Most of the time we didn’t even know where he was”.

Student representatives had been elected and some say they would be too scared to complain when approached. TUT South African Students Congress (SASCO) President says he became fed up after three days and packed his bags and went home. There were others who followed suit.

Education HOD, Dr Harry Rampa, sayshe is investigating reasons
behind students staying in such conditions.

The Head of the education department, Dr Harry Rampa, says he is aware of the grievances but is investigating and waiting for a proper report from the organiser of the trip who is currently difficult to locate for us.

Students say they even question the educational aspect of the trip. “We went to [a] place where they make sugar and we went to a mall in Durban. There was really nothing educational in our trip,” one student says.
Some students say they demand a full refund of their money and SASCO says they will be conducting their own investigation.

One student sums it up by saying, “I will never ever go on another TUT excursion again.”