TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      300% growth for Pick n Pay asap!

      17 May 2022

      Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

      17 May 2022

      Vodacom goes big on capex

      16 May 2022

      Load shedding escalated to stage 4

      16 May 2022

      Mteto Nyati bows out of Altron on a strong note

      16 May 2022
    • World

      Intel shareholders reject pay packages for top executives

      17 May 2022

      Musk hints at reduced offer price for Twitter

      17 May 2022

      SpaceX gets $125-billion valuation in private placement

      17 May 2022

      Crypto’s wild week offers a much-needed warning

      16 May 2022

      Terra’s $45-billion face plant creates a crowd of crypto losers

      16 May 2022
    • In-depth

      The standard model of particle physics may be broken

      11 May 2022

      Meet Jared Birchall, Elon Musk’s personal ‘fixer’

      6 May 2022

      Twitter takeover was brash and fast, with Musk calling the shots

      26 April 2022

      Musk wants free speech on Twitter but spent years silencing critics

      21 April 2022

      Musk’s board-seat tweet needed an edit button

      11 April 2022
    • Podcasts

      Everything PC S01E01 – ‘AMD: Ryzen from the dead – part 1’

      10 May 2022

      Llew Claasen on how exchange controls are harming SA tech start-ups

      2 May 2022

      The inside scoop on OVEX’s big expansion plans

      20 April 2022

      Decentralised finance, the ‘end of banks’ – and what comes next

      25 March 2022

      Maxtec and BigFix: helping stop cyberattackers in their tracks

      18 March 2022
    • Opinion

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022

      Cash is still king … but not for much longer

      31 March 2022

      Icasa on the role of TV white spaces and dynamic spectrum access

      31 March 2022

      Minister Ntshavheni is at risk of tripping up

      24 March 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»Zuma’s no-fee plan imperils SA universities

    Zuma’s no-fee plan imperils SA universities

    News By Agency Staff5 January 2018
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Jacob Zuma

    President Jacob Zuma’s move to scrap tuition fees for students from poor South African homes and freeze tariffs for those from working-class households may cause chaos during registration at public universities this month.

    Zuma unveiled the plan on 16 December, two days before Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him as leader of the ANC and two days after a body representing the 26 state-owned institutions said each would raise fees by 8%. The University of South Africa, the country’s biggest with more than 400 000 students, held fees at 2017 rates, it said on 7 December.

    On 1 January, the universities said they won’t allow walk-in applications from people who qualify for free education, but people should instead submit details online for assessment. A day later, the opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party condemned the move and called on all academically deserving students to report to universities of their choice for registration.

    Zuma’s announcement on free tertiary education is very much a political project and it puts a lot of pressure on the new ANC national executive committee

    “Zuma’s announcement on free tertiary education is very much a political project and it puts a lot of pressure on the new ANC national executive committee,” Joleen Steyn-Kotze, a senior research specialist at the Human Sciences Research Council, said by phone. “It is possible that there will be chaos and universities are going to be on high alert.”

    Weeks of violent protests at universities across the country in 2015 and 2016 delayed the end of those academic years, and institutions’ finances were stretched by the state’s decision to limit tuition costs in 2016.

    The economy is contending with a skills shortage and a 28% jobless rate. Investors are concerned that the fee proposal, which ignores fiscal targets set in the budget, will add to government debt and hasten another rating downgrade to junk for the country’s local-currency credit.

    The EFF said if walk-in applicants are not allowed onto university campuses, nobody else should be allowed to enter.

    “We don’t intend to cause form of anarchy, but if we are pushed, we will be left with no choice,” Phuthi Peter Keetse, the party’s student leader, said Thursday. “We are capable.”

    Fees frozen

    Under the plan that will be phased over five years starting in 2018, students from homes where the combined annual income is R350 000 or less annually won’t have to pay for tuition, books, meals, accommodation and transport. The directive also froze fees for students from households earning R600 000 or less per year.

    The National Student Financial Aid Scheme, which provided assistance to about 226 000 university students whose family income was below R122 000 annually in 2016, will assess applications from prospective students who didn’t previously qualify for financial aid but who now do, CEO Steven Zwane said on Thursday in Pretoria.

    NSFAS disbursed R12.4bn in financial aid to almost 482 000 students at universities and technical-vocational colleges in 2016, according to its annual report. Under the new plan, all those who are funding their studies through the organisation will have their loans converted to grants.

    We can easily afford it if we cut out the amount of government money that is currently being wasted on corruption and state capture

    National treasury allocated R76.7bn to higher education for the year to March 2018, and estimates this will increase by an average of 8.2% in each of the following three years, the fastest-growing spending item after debt-service costs, it said in the mid-term budget in October.

    South Africa will increase subsidies to universities to 1% of GDP from 0.7% now over the next five years, according to Zuma’s 16 December statement. National treasury will outline how the government will fund free higher education “in a fiscally sustainable manner” in the 21 February budget, finance minister Malusi Gigaba said after the presidency’s announcement.

    “We can easily afford it if we cut out the amount of government money that is currently being wasted on corruption and state capture,” Azar Jammine, the chief economist at Econometrix, said by phone. “Under the current circumstances there is too much pressure on the fiscus to afford the new measure.”  — Reported by Arabile Gumede, (c) 2017 Bloomberg LP

    Jacob Zuma top
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleAmazon to bid for Premier League rights
    Next Article All Macs, iPhones, iPads exposed to chip flaw

    Related Posts

    300% growth for Pick n Pay asap!

    17 May 2022

    Stablecoins wend wobbly way into the unknown

    17 May 2022

    Vodacom goes big on capex

    16 May 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Accelerating test automation

    16 May 2022

    Maxtec provides partners with a seamless credit solution

    13 May 2022

    Skybox research reveals a perilous threat landscape

    12 May 2022
    Opinion

    From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

    19 April 2022

    How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

    8 April 2022

    Cash is still king … but not for much longer

    31 March 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.