Bonang Mohale
A lack of access to education must be our new collective and singular enemy!
“Each generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or betray it” according to Frantz Fanon
The reason why we all ultimately defeated apartheid is because we all had the same enemy, the apartheid system.
Students’ fees protest are not new but are an extension of the unresolved past in post-apartheid South Africa. It is a rebellion of the poor to raise public awareness about the shortage of funding for higher education.
What started in 2015 as a series of protests at the University of Cape Town against the statue of Cecil John Rhodes, calling for an institutional culture that reflects their Africanness to decolonise higher education in South Africa, including its curriculum and for advances in equity and inclusivity (decolonisation of institutions and minds; democratisation and managerialism), expanded by mid-October 2015 into a nationwide student movement under the label #FeesMustFall – a student-led protest movement whose goals were initially to stop increases in student fees and to increase government funding of universities.
There is no doubt that higher education is in crisis with the cost of delivering university education at about R50-billion annually.
State contributions have declined while the burden on students has increased with the rise in tuition fees.
This is exacerbated by the R5.7-billion National Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) shortfall that earlier this year led to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s decision to cap first-time university entrants.
Most students come from impoverished backgrounds.
The department has admitted that it does not have a plan to fund students referred to as the “missing middle” – students who do not meet the NSFAS financial eligibility criteria but still struggle to afford higher education.
Many of these students are not able to access higher education due to the inability to secure bank loans and other sources of funding.
Information based on submissions made by 21 of the 26 public universities demonstrates that between 2010 and 2020, more than 100 000 former students were yet to receive their qualification certificates, but this had not happened because they have outstanding fees totalling more than R10-billion.
This historic debt in 2020 was audited by the department and is at R16.5-billion for institutions, and R9-billion of which was not considered to be recoverable..
The determination, which has seen these students battle all odds to make it to the first year, shows a hidden talent and resilience the country can ill-afford to lose.
Thus, measures are required to ensure they succeed when they reach university.
Clearly, what is required is business collaborations to address the student funding shortfall, while a long-term strategy in managing student funding is being developed, strongly supported by government.
A huge effort should be focused on raising funds to assist students who have completed their studies and are due to graduate but have an outstanding debt. Debt drives students to despair, leads to mental health issues and increases both food insecurity and poverty.
No less than 83% of girl learners in South Africa struggle to access menstrual hygiene products.
Maybe this is another epoch in which, like the National Education Collaboration Trust, business is called upon to intervene and must again decide that it is going to eliminate the entire R16.5-billion historic debt.
Business does not even have to find new funds for this, but simply redirect their current committed corporate social investment budget that is dedicated to education into this “historic debt fund”.
Imagine if each company contributes a minimum of R1-million with government’s commitment to match the amount.
With more than 1.5-million medium-sized companies, 800 securities that are currently available on the JSE’s equity market, about 400 companies listed across the main board and the AltX board with about 60 equity market member firms, authorised to trade on the market and the JSE equity market data that is used by clients and investors in more than 40 countries, this is a big ask.
But with the will, determination and dedication to succeed, we can, together with all our social partners, obliterate this blight that afflicts our own children, nieces and nephews.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights.
Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the declaration was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in Paris on December 10 1948 (General Assembly Resolution 217A) as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations.
It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and it has been translated into over 500 languages.
The UDHR is widely recognised as having inspired and paved the way for the adoption of more than 70 human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels.
Article 26 of 30 states: “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all based on merit.
“Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.
“It shall promote understanding, tolerance, and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
“Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.”
The Sustainable Development Goal 4 is about quality education and is among the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the UN in September 2015.
In the same way that we committed in Kliptown on June 26 1955, that “these freedoms we will fight for, side by side, throughout our lives, until we have won our liberty”.
We have not, collectively, eradicated the legacy of apartheid. There is still a lot of work to be done. The doors of learning and of culture shall be opened.
So, it was not a surprise that when the ANC finally came to power after democratic elections on April 27 1994, the new constitution of South Africa also included many of the demands of the Freedom Charter, including the right to education.
The preamble to the constitution recognises the injustices of our past, adopting the constitution as the supreme law of the country “to heal the divisions of the past; establish a society based on democratic values, social justice, and fundamental human rights; improve the quality of life of all citizens and free the potential of each person and build a united and democratic South Africa able to take its rightful place as a sovereign state in the family of nations”.
Section 9 of the constitution guarantees equality before the law and freedom from discrimination to the people of South Africa. This equality right is the first right listed in the Bill of Rights.
It prohibits both discrimination by government and discrimination by private persons.
However, it also allows for affirmative action to be taken to redress past unfair discrimination, including the provision of education to all South Africans.
• Mohale is the president of Business Unity South Africa, chancellor of the University of the Free State, professor of practice in the Johannesburg Business School College of Business and Economics, and chairman of The Bidvest Group Limited
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