ActionSA’s higher education funding plan is the most credible of any political party

9 April 2024

Members of the media,

Actioners,

And most importantly, the young people of our beloved country.

Today, I address you on behalf of ActionSA on a topic that is very dear to me – ensuring that South African youth are empowered, through education, to pursue the life they dream of.

Growing up in the poor area of GaRamotse in Hammanskraal, about 50km north of Pretoria, during the 1960s, it was my grandfather who showed me the importance and power of education as the route to self-reliance.

He saw how tough life was and told me: “God gave us brains to face and beat these hard times”.

Back then, my mom was the only one earning an income for our family. She worked as a domestic worker, living in the backroom of a white family in Johannesburg, while I was raised with the help of my three sisters.

It was my grandfather's advice that compelled me to get out of poverty and pursue a higher education degree.

I passed my Matric in 1988 and enrolled for a BAdmin Degree at the University of The North in 1989, which is today called the University of Limpopo.

However, my studies were cut short when the apartheid government suddenly shut down the university during the national state of emergency during my second year of studies in 1980.

Still, I never stopped believing in the power of education. I always told my kids to look for chances to learn and study, and now I help support scholarship programs for students across South Africa.

I believe that access to quality education should not be a luxury accessible only by the few, but a tool available to the masses to provide a pathway out of the cycle of poverty and unemployment that entraps so many South Africans.

Education is the key to upward mobility and overcoming the legacy of apartheid where access to quality education was a function of the colour of our skin.

Apartheid may have fallen, but the barriers to higher education have not. It is a great injustice that 30 years after the end of apartheid, millions of South Africans face insurmountable challenges to pursuing post-matric studies.

Fellow South Africans,

Today, ActionSA wants to table our plans to right this wrong.

Today, ActionSA wants to share our vision of expanding higher education opportunities to as many people as possible in South Africa.

Quality education has been a core value of ActionSA from the start. We maintain that quality education is one of the best tools for people to empower themselves, and improve not only their lives, but the lives of their families.

That is why we have committed that under an ActionSA government, no academically qualifying student will be excluded from further education because they lack the funds to study.

In the same way that we believe that schools in township communities should be on the same standard as those found in suburban areas, we believe that everyone in the country should have the opportunity to higher education as long as they meet the academic requirements to do so.

Education and the possibility for upward mobility should not be a luxury, it should be a basic right.

But, the ruling party has failed to open the doors of learning by failing to dismantle the barriers to access for many South Africans.

Fellow South Africans,

There is no doubt that many of South Africa’s higher education centres are in crisis, while too many students are prohibited from accessing tertiary education due to financial exclusion.

Despite repeated promises and investigations into higher education funding, South Africa has made little progress in expanding access to higher education.

Seven years after the release of the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Feasibility of making High Education and Training Fee-free in South Africa, issues regarding funding for the so-called “missing middle” of students exist.

These are students who do not qualify for funding under NSFAS, but also do not qualify for commercial lending alternatives. They are left without an option, and without the hope of a better future.

It is simply unacceptable that, 30 years after democracy, students are excluded from obtaining a tertiary education because they lack the funds. Not while our government wastes billions on propping up failing SOEs and allows limited public funds to be stolen by self-interested cadres.

Many of matriculants who have joined us today face an uncertain future, not sure if they would be able to attain tertiary education opportunities or skills to enter the workplace.

Meanwhile, institutions such as NSFAS have been plagued with corruption allegations as thousands of students go homeless or without food.

Tertiary institutions across the country suffer from maladministration and our very own ministers face allegations of buying their degrees, thereby reducing the credibility of South African qualifications.

And, our centres of higher learning fail to address the critical skills shortage currently facing South Africa, from software developers, engineers, and scientists.

For us to fix South Africa, and build a more prosperous nation, we urgently need to address the funding crisis alongside reforms to our institutions of learning.

Fellow South Africans and particularly the youth of South Africa,

Today I want to commit to you that an ActionSA government will significantly expand and improve access to a variety of post-matric opportunities, whether through traditional academic routes in universities, or via colleges dedicated to technical skills and vocational training.

Yesterday, student leaders from across South Africa gathered in Johannesburg to further develop ActionSA’s plan to address the issue of financial exclusion from further education.

Their deliberations were borne of a resolution at our inaugural policy conference in September last year where we resolved that that ActionSA would develop a proposal around student funding and accommodation.

Today I want to give you a glimpse of this plan, that will detail our approach to expanding access to further education not only by removing financial barriers, but through a comprehensive plan to address the institutional failures of the higher education system.

This includes:

·        Increasing financial support to academically qualifying students, including tuition, accommodation and living expenses.

·        Expanding our network of quality institutions of higher education to ensure to alleviate capacity constraints.

·        Investing in new public-sector student accommodation opportunities to address the shortage we currently face.

·        Increasing the opportunities for technical and vocational training by investing in new TVET colleges, re-introducing specialised training colleges such as teaching, policing, nursing, agriculture and artisanal skills, like plumbing and electrical work.

·        And, expanding the lifelong skills development programs, to ensure our people always have opportunities to gain additional skills, throughout their careers.

I have never believed in making promises I cannot keep, so I want to be honest that this will not happen overnight. ActionSA believes that government has a responsibility to be transparent about what is and is not possible.

I say this because while it is our dream that one day we can introduce fee-free education for all students, we must accept the reality we face as a country that suffers from low economic growth, a declining tax base and sustained unemployment of over 40%.

While we work towards growing our economy through our plan for Economic Prosperity, we will achieve our goal of ensuring that no academically qualify student will be excluded from further education through aggressive reprioritisation of the national budget away from wasteful expenditure like SOE bailouts and VIP security.

Combined with reforms to NSFAS alongside the introduction of our Opportunity Fund, we can remove barriers to funding access for all South Africans.

This, my fellow South Africans, is entirely possible as long as we have the political will to make it happen. The political will to take action!

Let me say this again – under an ActionSA government, no academically qualifying student will be excluded from further education because they lack the funds to study.

We will ensure that student funding will be a top priority, ahead of any government expense.

And with the establishment of ActionSA’s one of the kind Opportunity Fund, we will ensure that public funds that currently go to enriching entrepreneurs to empowering the young people of South Africa.

The Opportunity Fund will radically expand access to tertiary education by not only funding students, but also building new higher education facilities.

Fellow South Africans,

When ActionSA says quality education is one of our core values, we do not simply want to talk the talk.

But, through our plans, we want to show that we put words to action. Because, only ACTION will fix South Africa.

Today we want to demonstrate that we have spent countless hours deliberating on a credible approach that will address the crisis.

We believe the proposals we are tabling today can once and for all ensure that doors of higher education are open.

I would now like to hand over to our Team Fix SA member for Higher Education, Dr Tutu Faleni, and some of our student representatives to the present our approach.

I thank you.

Issued by Herman Mashaba, President, ActionSA, 9 April 2024