Pregnant SA students 'expelled from accommodation'

Pregnant students at South Africa’s University of Zululand in KwaZulu-Natal province are being expelled from their university accommodation, a state investigator has said.

Mlondozi Vava, from the government-backed Commission for Gender Equality, said the university’s Student Representative Council had reported the problem, saying it happened when students were visibly pregnant.

“When a student is pregnant while residing at the university residence, the university expels the students from the residence when they are approaching their last trimester of the pregnancy," he said.

Mr Vava was speaking at the commission’s hearing into gender policy at institutions of higher learning.

University of Zululand vice-chancellor, Xoliswa Mtose, said she was shocked about the findings.

"I would never tolerate that, it is possible that people are malicious and want to create trouble," South Africa’s Sowetan Live newspaper quoted her as saying.

But she said she would investigate the issue.

“If it’s true or there are people [who] have been discriminated against like that, we need to know and correct that,” she told South Africa’s TimesLive after the hearing