Poor Customer Service from Mancosa

Good day

I would like to narrate the poor service that I am currently receiving from Mancosa. I am a 2nd year Bcom student and in the first semester I noticed that one of my module exams was scheduled for a Saturday. In March I wrote an email to Mancosa student services explaining that I could not sit for a Saturday exam for religious reasons. From Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, it is the Sabbath and I am not able to engage in any thing except worship. The agent that responded asked me to wait until a few days close to the exam, then I could apply for an aegrotat.

In June I app**** for the aegrotat and submitted a letter from my church which confirmed our beliefs and especially states that the Sabbath is from Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. I was granted the aegrotat, meaning I was going to miss the Saturday exam and pushed over to write together with the supplementary students. However, to much of my surprise the online summative assessment is to be written on Friday 14.08.2020 from 14h00 to 19h00. I wrote an email again reminding Mancosa that sunset on that day will be around 18h16 and therefore they have not given a solution to my problem. What disappointed me is the fact that they had the nerve to tell me to either write the 5-hour exam in 4 hours or re-register and pay more money to do the same subject. How could I (a client) be treated with so much unfairness when I made my request known to them in March.

Since this is an online assessment, I pleaded with them to open my exam just an hour earlier so that I do not have to write the exam into the Sabbath hours, but all they can do is make me feel like there is no “religious liberty” in South Africa and they have not yet responded even to my last email.

The other thing is that I clearly requested insight in how my exam was going to be marked, either as a first sitting or supp, as that affects my mark rating. I also asked if there is any remedy in place, in case I fail the exam, would I be given the same privilege to write a supp, but to my dismay there was no feedback on these questions.

Mancosa has very poor client service. They do not seek to offer customized solutions for their students who is by the way their bread and butter. They do not understand that generic solutions do not always work. There is no structure there, more than once I asked for contact details for someone who has higher authority, someone above the call Centre agents, but they do not even bother to assist. I feel like they are happy when a student misses an exam because that will be more money to their pockets.

Can someone please assist me as I am only 48 hours away from the exam.