Rhodes University has made yet another bid to acquire the land between an over-mined kaolin quarry and the Gavin Relly Postgraduate Village.
Rhodes University has made yet another bid to acquire the land between an over-mined kaolin quarry and the Gavin Relly Postgraduate Village.
The university hopes to acquire the land on which it wants to build student residences. Addressing a special council meeting last week, Rhodes Vice-chancellor Dr Saleem Badat explained that the university’s future enrollment plan was closely linked to the funds the university receives from the state.
He added that Rhodes currently has 7070 students, of which approximately 55% are black. “In 2013 we plan to have around 7400 students in total,” he said.
“Because the university is not located in a metropolitan area our growth is very much related to our ability to accommodate students,” he argued.
Badat revealed that the university’s expansion plan entails building 20 new and refurbished buildings by the year 2020. These include facilities such as new laboratories, sports centres and digital workstations.
The plan involves building four residences which in the next two years. The university hopes to build three of these residences in the land between the quarry and the postgradute village, which is situated near the 1820 Settlers Monument.
Badat added that while they are primarily looking to acquire the land, they may rehabilitate the quarry and use it to build an indoor sports centre which will house two basketball courts.
However, he emphasised that the university is not interested in the quarry alone but rather the land adjacent to it and that they may only rehabilitate the quarry if they get the land.
He added that the university is currently building three residences on land which is close to the quarry. Badat asserted that selling the land to the university will have positive spin-offs for Grahamstown as a whole.
He cited that none of the university’s support services are outsourced and vowed that no services will be outsourced during his reign at the helm of the university.
He claimed that the university is socially responsible towards the local community arguing that “the future of Rhodes University is linked to the future of this town”.
Makana councillor Michael Whisson supported the university’s aspirations and said that it made no sense for the land not to be alienated to the university when it already owns the land around it.
