Students at UCT told Daily Maverick how they feel about ongoing protests at the university that have been spurred by NSFAS-related housing issues and financial exclusion.

Students at the University of Cape Town (UCT) have been protesting over housing issues and financial exclusion at the university since Monday, although protests have been rumbling for weeks. Daily Maverick spoke to UCT students who shared their thoughts about what has been happening on their campus.

A first-year student's experience

Morgan Leak, a first-year Politics and Media Studies student, said: "I was in a tutorial for media and we were taken out of our lecture. I went to go speak to two of the people that told us to leave [...] and they were basically telling me how people were not being able to register because of financial blocks.

"They said a big reason for why they were protesting is because NSFAS [the National Student Financial Aid Scheme] didn't cover the full amount that they needed for housing and that the average South African minimum wage household [earns] only R36,000 a year, and they needed an extra R25,000 to cover housing and they just cannot afford it ... That gave me a better...