Jacob Zuma and the ANC have mortgaged the future of a million young South Africans
22 September 2016
When the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, called a press conference this week to announce his ‘decision’ on fee increases for the year, there was a clear and devious strategy at play: to do everything possible to distance himself, the Treasury, President Jacob Zuma, and the ANC, from the mess which they themselves have created.
Universities have been thrust into the Bermuda Triangle of government indifference, caught between Nzimande’s short termism, Treasury ruthlessness and Zuma’s anti-intellectual contempt.
The ANC strategy has been, from the very beginning, to make the Universities the enemy of the students, so that the collective anger can be wielded not against those who make the decisions about funding, but against the very institutions which have been calling for more funding for more than a decade. It is a desperate act of self-preservation which once again puts the ANC first and the people last.
In a time of crisis, one expects strong leadership and foresight. But what South Africa is witnessing this week is more cowardice and disdain by an ANC government that has abandoned the future of South Africa. They well know that even if Universities are able to implement an 8% fee increase – and Fort Hare has already declared that it will not do so – this will render them unsustainable as institutions.