President Zuma must immediately release fees report to prevent confusion after leak
The DA calls on President Jacob Zuma to immediately release the long overdue Report of the Commission of Enquiry into University Fees, together with the recommendations of Government.
The President’s own nearly 2-month dilly-dallying over the release of the report, and his reported refusal to share it with the previous Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande for what seem to be petty and vindictive reasons, have predictably resulted in a leak of aspects of the report in today’s City Press.
The leak is bound to cause public confusion and concern. The Commission’s reported recommendation that a no-fee solution cannot be found was to be expected – and will itself be controversial in some student quarters.
There are a handful of measures that will be popular: scrapping registration fees, for example - but the full report would have to indicate where universities would get their cashflow for the first three months of the academic year without it.
Making TVETs completely free and introducing a stipend for TVET students is another – but we need to know how much more that would cost, how such a scheme could be managed given the huge complexities of TVET student registrations, and where that money would come from.