Wits University responds to a final year medical student Muntaaz Emeran’s R471 thousand owed to the institution.
One Thursday, the university had responded to Emeran following her Instagram video which went viral on Tuesday, where she was pleading with fellow South Africans to come to her rescue as her future was about to be on hold.
Wits says it came to its surprise when one of their final year medical students, Emeran was seen circulating on social media and received from donors, R471 000 she owed to the university.
Emeran explained how she was let down by her sponsor, she said she had entered a contract with the sponsor outlining that they will fund her studies as she spent three good years funding herself from the paltry salary she’s making from the retail stores she worked for. Sadly, the sponsor did not settle her previous debt as she was told that the money left the sponsor, they money did not reach its intended destination though.
The matter of the sponsor, Emeran find it best not to disclose, she entered a contract with to fund her medical studies from the fourth year until graduation, was not reported to the institution as the spokesperson thereof, Shirona Patel shared with the media that they only learnt of the incident online.
“If she had [told Wits], the university would have tried to connect her with another sponsor or advised her about a low-interest loan scheme for health sciences students. In any case, once we heard the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences called the student and met with her yesterday (on Wednesday) in order to try to resolve her set of particular issues,” Patel said.
Emeran, on the video posted on Instagram, said she only learnt not long ago that she would not be able to graduate as the university notified her, saying she will only graduate if her R471 000 debt is cleared prior the 9th of December.
Read | Wits medical student gets her R400 000 debt settled by SA’s good Samaritans
Out of frustration, she had found it best to go to social media about, and to her surprise her going viral helped a lot. She said not graduating would put in jeopardy, her internship with the public hospital next year.
As Emeran told Instagrammers that, the university denied her access to her acaemic history, the university denied her utterance with the insertions that, every student has unreserved access to their academic transcripts as such could be used to help in questing for a placement.
Albeit, the med student had her debt clear and she’s going to be part of the graduation ceremony (literally the virtual one as per Covid-19) and she’ll receive her degree.
“When it’s meant for you it will be for you,” said Emeran ass he thanked South Africans who played part or contributed to brightening her future.
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