Blade must fall

Access to higher education is a critical element in being able to equip young South Africans to take advantage of opportunities and build a better future for themselves.

The DA welcomes the decision taken by Wits University to suspend its decision to hike fees, pending further negotiations. This, however, will not fix the ANC government’s failure to provide adequate funding to our nation’s universities – which is at the heart of these protests.

When universities do not get enough funding and support from the Department of Higher Education, and when NSFAS – which should be funding every poor South African student who gets accepted into university – is short of R51 billion, the ANC demonstrates that it doesn’t care about poor students. And equipping them with what they need to find employment.

The truth is that students should be protesting outside the office of Minister Blade Nzimande himself. The funding of higher education in South Africa is in a mess. And is only serving to make life even more difficult for the country’s youth who are bearing the brunt of a sluggish economy and a lack of job opportunities.

If President Zuma is serious about creating opportunities for young South Africans, he needs to expedite the establishment and work of the Higher Education Task Team to find extra funding for tertiary education.  And ensure that Treasury is part of this Task Team.

Wednesday’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement provides the government with an excellent opportunity to set out how it intends to solve the Higher Education funding crisis in the short term.

It is also high time that Minister Nzimande spend less time on the internal politics of the tripartite alliance and more time on addressing the crisis currently afflicting the education sector he is responsible for.

The DA has a clear policy alternative to the opportunity-killing mess the ANC has created through its higher education funding policy. A DA government would:

Encourage the use of skills levy funding for both short courses and long-term studies at universities and Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges;

Expand the assistance provided through the NSFAS, and ensure that NSFAS funding covers the full cost of study – available as loans and converted to bursaries if studies are successfully completed.

Provide state sureties for students who do not qualify for NSFAS bursaries, but are seeking student loans from commercial banks;

Allow students studying towards qualifications in areas where the public service is in need of skills to repay public loans through public service.

No South African should be denied the opportunity to pursue further studies because they do not have money. This can only change when our government gets its funding priorities right. To do so, it needs the right leadership with the requisite focus.

Issued by Graham Charters, Acting Spokesperson to the DA Leader, 17 October 2015