Johannesburg - More than R31-million has been diverted from renovating a burnt-out 120-bed Gauteng university residence to “cosmetic” projects such as painting walls.

This is despite the staggering shortage of tertiary accommodation.

This diversion of the government-issued money has drawn the ire of Vaal University of Technology (VUT) students and officials, who have accused management of compromising much-needed accommodation by flouting procurement policies to do “non-essential” projects, which the institution called an “emergency”.

Meropa residence was destroyed in May 2016 during student protests and the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) confirmed that, through its infrastructure and efficiency grant (IEG), money was given to the university to refurbish the residence as well as three lecture halls and the electrical supply network.

Of the R3 12336 62 budgeted for fixing essential infrastructure, R18.2m, which included insurance money, was set aside for Meropa and R4.7m to refurbish three lecture halls.