“New money” has been found to deal with the huge problem of education fees – and who should pay more, or less, or nothing, writes Don Makatile.
I could be seeing things – which will not be a first, but Dr Blade Nzimande seems to have mellowed in a few short weeks. He has nothing of the combative fire and brimstone speechifying of the SACP general secretary when he’s wearing this other hat, that of the Minister of Higher Education and Training.
A week has shown lately that a lot can happen, and even change, in the current higher education space. In just one weekend, Msulwa Daca, the chief executive of NSFAS, the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, has enthused how his “budget has increased by 50 percent in one weekend alone”.
Short of puffing up his own chest, Dr Nzimande himself says “we have grown NSFAS from R3 billion in 2009 to R10 billion in 2016”.
A lot has indeed changed.
In just a week the minister has come to grips with the modernity of social media and has told everyone within earshot of his conversations that “I’m now on Facebook”. He told his 2 761 Twitter followers – and growing, about this imminent interview with him to lend weight to his new tech-savvy alter ego!
But somehow the old socialist streak still lurks somewhere in there and he kicks off the discussion with a passionate analysis of what he thinks is the genesis of the #FeesMustFall campaign.
“We have a hugely indebted middle class,” the minister explains, and rounds off the point thus: these struggles are legitimate.
The SACP had just issued a statement in support of the issues raised by Cosatu vis-à-vis the tax laws and the management of pension of workers, Dr Nzimande says.
“As I look at this statement, something strikes me. The SACP says the answer to this tension between Cosatu and government is actually a comprehensive social security net for the country. We are sitting with a hugely indebted middle class and lower middle class.”
Why, he asks rhetorically – and begins to tell us why. “We have very high levels of unemployment. Those are household realities we have in South Africa (and) the same people do not qualify for RDP houses because they are above the threshold. And similarly they don’t have money for higher education for their children.”
He is as truthful as he is fervent. “So the fees must fall is a manifestation of this problem.”
So when he says his is a caring government, it becomes difficult to argue after the minister had painted this scenario of the working class hardships.
“I don’t feel in a corner,” he declares, again pointing out that the student demands are okay.
“We ourselves, as government; we identified and committed to progressively introducing free higher education for the poor. It’s our policy. I don’t feel cornered at all.
“It is stressful because we have to work and think how we can deal with and manage this situation.
“Given where we are now, government has listened, and government has responded.”
He talks of the “new money” that government has “found” – R6.9 billion – and apportions it arithmetically into lumps that could easily pass for an economics analysis.
“R2.3bn for zero fee increases”, “R4.6bn for NSFAS”, and of this he apportions so much to “historic debt” by “all those who owe money” from… 2013, 2014, 2015. “We gonna pay for them. Including those who may have dropped out,” he adds.
He accounts for every single billion, surely even to the last penny with his pocket calculator. “This money is over and above the R10bn (already) available to NSFAS,” the bean-counter continues.
At this point it is interesting – even enlightening, to listen to the minister. He’s on a roll. It’s no wonder he says those students who walked out of a meeting with him have subsequently reverted to him to say “they would like to continue the engagement”.
He dismisses the walk-out almost as water off a duck’s back: “Only eight universities walked out. We have 26 public universities.”
When the question comes, Nzimande recalls that he should have said something earlier about free registration. Every student on the NSFAS books will not pay “any upfront fee” to register, the minister says.
“And that’s just under 20 percent of the total university population.”
The figure of beneficiaries stands at 205 000 varsity students and 200 000 at colleges, the calculator mode informs. A number of universities have agreed that “for the missing middle they are willing to consider arrangements on a case-by-case basis”. “But those who can pay must pay.”
Before this ground-breaking development, tertiary institutions, especially those whose student numbers largely comprised NSFAS beneficiaries, would have been averse to register any more students as soon as they ran out of NSFAS funds, the minister says.
“The Missing Middle” is another Nzimande-esque that is likely to have many more audiences hanging on his every word. It refers to those “who fall between the cracks”.
“I’m talking about the children of nurses, teachers, police officers, the ones I was describing when I was talking about the necessity of a comprehensive social security net.
“You can see the people who are excluded there.”
These are from families who were earning above the NSFAS means threshold of R122 000 a year but even at, say, R180 000, were still not able to afford higher education fees for their children.
“NSFAS is fairly advanced in developing a new model of financing to support them as well. As the chair (Sizwe Nxasana) said, they aim to pilot the new model in 2017 to assist ‘the missing middle’ with the further hope of full implementation in 2018.”
The minister is just so intoxicated with the plethora of solutions to the #FeesMustFall eruption that he throws all of them into the hat of discussion in interviews. “The president has just announced the commission to look into the modalities of implementing free higher education for the poor.”
The commission has a shelf life of eight months henceforth.
“I am honestly of the view that the students must claim this as a victory and give the commission a chance. They must grab these opportunities with both hands, register and go back to class to ensure a smooth start to the academic year.”
At this point, the minister could be forgiven for thinking, “abracadabra, the academic year will start tomorrow!” But there’s still the lost meaning of “free higher education” to contend with. For all; for the poor – that is the question?
“We’ve never had a policy of free higher education for all. Some of the people lie and say the Freedom Charter says so. It doesn’t.
“No we disagree. It is not government policy, not for as long as South Africa is a capitalist society. Students who come from families who can afford must pay.
“Because if you subsidise the rich,” says the Minister of Higher Education, “you are in fact robbing the poor to pay the wealthy. That’s what you’re doing.”
Were the student protests free of Third Force influences, does the minister think?
“Some of them are political. They are using this as a launching pad for the local government elections. There were elements, some of whom were flirting around Marikana… who were seeing this as some kind of experiment for a revolution they think they can carry out here.
“That is why we’re saying to students, your struggles are legitimate but be careful of wolves in sheep skins who’d want to hijack this for their own narrow political interests. I’m quite confident that the students have seen through that.”
The holder of a PhD in Sociology, he allows the conversation to be steered towards the dearth of academics with the relevant qualifications. Staffing South African Universities is an initiative to “try support masters and PhD students”.
He adds: “There are 150 that we’re funding as government; we need to increase that number.”
He then laments the fact that no less than “83 percent of professors in SA are white and the system is not self-correcting”.
He calculates that given that the average age of a South African academic is 55 years, “in 10 years we’ll be in trouble”.
But even as he talks about these other issues pertinent to his portfolio, one can tell his mind is on the student protests, some of which have turned violent. “Protest must not be violent,” he says.
Damage to university property stands at R150 million. He readily concedes that “after this” – the #FeesMustFall campaign, “our higher education system will never really be the same”.
But he believes the biggest lesson the campaign has taught the powers that be is that they “implement your own policies, faster”.
“We’ve been doing quite a lot,” the minister confesses. He says history will judge him kindly: “I think I’ve done my bit. I’ve done all I could. I gave it my best shot.”
No sleepless nights?
“You can’t go through such a thing without being seized with it. Sometimes it does keep you awake.”
The Third Hand using students “to contest Johannesburg and Tshwane Metros”, could perhaps just this once let up and allow the words of the minister to find consonance with student aspirations just as they did with this particular audience on Friday morning.
“We’re a listening government.
“We’ve gone very far towards responding to the needs of the students.”
Touché; give Blade a break!
Sunday Independent