Johannesburg – South Africa’s higher education sector is set for a rocky few weeks as universities scramble to ensure they accommodate as many students as possible with outstanding debt amid the reported funding shortfall for the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).
Student organisations, including the ANC-aligned South African Students Congress (Sasco), are calling for a total shutdown of the sector until all their issues are resolved.
Sasco president Bamanye Matiwane said students should render all campuses across the country ungovernable.
“We cannot as students sit while hundreds of thousands of students across our country are denied their right to an education by being financially excluded as a result of Tito Mboweni’s austerity measures that seek to ensure the marginalising of black students from poor and working-class backgrounds,” said Matiwane.
Thousands of Wits students took to the streets this week to take the university to task over exclusion of poor students.
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The protests saw a bystander, Mthokozisi Ntumba, killed allegedly by the police while several other students were injured during the skirmishes.
Wits vice- chancel lor Zeblon Vilakazi said the issue of students funding is a national, system-wide issue that Wits cannot solve alone.
“It is worrying that student debt amounts to approximately R1-billion now, almost double what it was at the end of 2017,” said Vilakazi.
“But we remain committed to assisting as many academically talented students as possible to register within the possibilities of the resources that we have available. We have to ensure that the university remains financially sustainable and that we continue to offer quality higher education.”
The chairperson of the portfolio committee on higher education, science and technology, Philly Mapulane, said the difficulties experienced by the missing middle students regarding financial exclusions due to outstanding debt is at the heart of the current protests at Wits.
“The committee has resolved to summon Wits and student leadership to appear before the committee in the coming week in order to have a conversation around the possible solutions to the current challenges faced by students,” said Mapulane.
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Universities and technical and vocational Education and training colleges were brought to a standstill in 2016 when the “Fees Must Fall” movement raised issues of student funding.
Former president Jacob Zuma in 2017 announced that the government will subsidise free higher education for students from poor and working-class families.
However, the decision has not alleviated the plight faced by thousands of students who continually protest over the lack of funding.
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Leana de Beer, the CEO of student crowdfunding platform Feenix, said the pandemic and struggling economy have left families’ budgets severely impacted, which in turn has meant that many students are unable to settle their outstanding debt or pay for registration fees.
“Students who are unable to pay their fees and are neither eligible for NSFAS funding or a student loan are at risk of being left behind,” said De Beer.
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