Fees Must Fall was a wish list, after all

AFTER all the hullabaloo noting the bravery of student leaders as game-changers who could force the government to sponsor free education, the present reality does not agree.

Universities continue to demand registration and tuition fees without compromise, taking full advantage of conditions allowed by the pandemic.

As a matter of fact, many students face being excluded from the academic year because they just cannot pay. The institutions are bolstering their financial coffers with threatening messages like “provisional registration” and “outstanding fees”.

There is no mercy today, when educational institutions of the government want to recoup money from poor students even during a pandemic. But when state entities lose money to corruption, recouping that money is done through hugs and kisses for the cadres involved.

Not only are educational institutions demanding payment for the so-called free education, they are binding the parents of desperate students into tight contracts and subsequent life-long debts owed to the institutions. It makes one wonder whether the fees must fall fiasco was a real revolution. Or maybe, it was an intelligence-driven exercise by comrades, to diffuse the anger of the youth and inflate the ego of student leaders, their own members and future. If that was the case, it probably worked. But for how long can you fool all the people all the time, even youths in their “unemployed and destitute” status? KHOTSO KD MOLEKO | Mangaung, Bloemfontein