DA vindicated: DHET caught in a lie about how it will fund the university shortfall

19 November 2015

The details of Minister of Higher Education’s plan to address the shortfall in university funding, released by the DA last week, but denied as “false” and “unfounded” speculation  by the Ministry, have been confirmed as accurate in a Draft Report before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations and Adjustments.

Last week, the DA released the details of Minister Blade Nzimande’s plan which revealed the extent to which the Minister would be plundering a grant to develop historically disadvantaged institutions as well as skills development funds originally earmarked for much needed apprenticeships and scholarships. The Minister’s spokesperson, Khaye Nkwanyana, vociferously denied the accuracy of these details in the media and accused the DA of “communicating false information to misled (sic) the nation”. Nkwanyana further accused the DA of “speculating on unfounded information”. 

The Report, however, proves that it is the Ministry of Higher Education which is misleading the nation. Just as the DA had discovered, the report states that, on information submitted by the Department:

R361 million would be taken from grants to HDIs “meant for programmes for improvements in management and administration”;

R1.274 billion would be appropriated from SETA surpluses which “funds had been earmarked for support to [TVETs] and post graduate scholarships in the university sector”; and

Only R300 million would be funded through the National Revenue Fund.

It is not clear whether Mr Nkwanyana was ignorant of his principal’s plan or whether he was intentionally lying in an attempt to defame the DA and hide the details of the Minister’s nefarious plan to make the poor pay for the President’s 0% fee increase promise. 

In any case, the DA calls on the Minister and the President to reject this plan and, as soon as possible, to announce a plan to source the money for the shortfall from unnecessary and extravagant spending in the national fiscus, as proposed by the DA, instead of from essential grants to uplift the poor and historically disadvantaged. 

Issued by Prof Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, 19 November 2015