EFF WELCOMES THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF FREE HIGHER EDUCATION AS A VICTORY OF FEES MUST FALL

Saturday, December 16, 2017

The EFF welcomes Zuma's announcement that free education will be extended to all poor students. We welcome this as a historic generational victory of the fees must fall movement. Zuma's announcement follows the Fees Commission recommendations which came short and only recommended free education for TVET colleges. 

In his announcement, Zuma states that:

"the government will now introduce fully subsidised free higher education and training for poor and working-class South African undergraduate students, starting in 2018 with students in their first year of study at our public universities. Students categorised as poor and working class, under the new definition, will be funded and supported through government grants, not loans."

This means the NFSAS scheme will in the main from now on be grants and not loan scheme. Zuma has simply extended the recommendations for the TVET colleges by the Fees Commission to University students. 

This will aid a lot of families and relieve a lot of financial burden from their shoulders. We also welcome announcements of increase of government subsidy to universities as recommended by the Fees Commission. 

Zuma has however not indicated where all the money will come from to fund education. We believe that there has to be War Against Tax avoidance, particularly in the extractive industries, to combat illicit financial flows and tax base erosion. In this regard the EFF makes the following recommendations to source further income for free education:

1. Education levy on the pension fund of 2.5%.

2. Additional 1% on the 1% skills levy to make it 2%.

3. Government contribution must increase to 2% of the GDP. This is where illicit financial flows for it. 

4. 4.9% increase in Corporate Income Tax earmarked for higher education - this is where illicit financial flows also fit in.

There has to be a concrete plan on how infrastructure within higher education and training sectors is going to happen. Implementing free education means there will also be huge numbers that want to access higher learning institutions. As a result, government must expand actual infrastructure and staff to cater for the growing numbers.

Finally, we want to put it on record that our principle policy has to do with providing free education for all South Africans regardless of class background. Merely cutting the provision of education to the poor defined as those with a combined household income of less than R600 000 is merely postponing the problem. In less than 10 years, the middle-income population of today will be the poor of tomorrow. Education must be decommodified to allow it to be about academic credentials and talent, as opposed to financial credentials. 

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 16 December 2017