Dear Blade, with love, ANCYL

7 September 2016

Johannesburg – ANC Youth League Secretary General Njabulo Nzuza has written an open letter to Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande, demanding that he urgently attends to the situation around university tuition fees.

"I can see that all the private discussions we have had around free education for the poor and 0% fee [increase] are not bearing fruits. The situation is dire, institutions are burning with terror and violence is used against students," Nzuza writes.

Just this week, a law library at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard campus was torched during a new wave of Fees Must Fall protests. Students have expressed concern over a possible fee hike ahead of the 2017 academic year.

Nzuza called on Nzimande to urgently implement a zero-percent fee increment, casting doubt on ANC policies regarding free quality education, and to spend less time meeting with vice chancellors of institutions of higher learning.

"Reduce meetings with vice chancellors, because instead of transforming the system, they will transform you to accept the system they have built which is abusive to students."

The Department of Higher Education said it would only comment after reading the letter.

This article first appeared on News24, see here.