Fees protest a headache for premier
Makhura urges leaders to heed outcome of poll heavily in favour of returning to classes
THE ongoing student protests over possible university fees hikes next year are giving Gauteng Premier David Makhura sleepless nights and he lives in the hope of a solution to the turmoil.
Makhura, a former student leader and secretary-general of Sasco, chose an unusual venue to express his sentiments on the higher education saga.
He was in Sandton’s Gauteng Investment Centre primarily to brief big business and other interested parties about his government’s achievement in attracting direct foreign investment, including trade deals secured with African states.
But this didn’t deter him from also speaking his mind on the possibility that students would not sit their final exams at the end of the year because of the turmoil.
“This worries me a lot. It keeps me awake,” he said.
Makhura also hit out at the rampant destruction of university property as well as the use of force by police, and urged all parties to exercise restraint.
Makhura conceded that in the early 1990s, while at the helm of student politics, he was nearly caught in an almost-similar fees- must- f all protest.
Due to student pressure and intervention from then minister of education Sibusiso Bengu, an agreement was reached to convert 40 percent of the former Tertiary Education Fund of SA’s loans into a bursary, which eased tensions at universities and other higher education institutions.
Yesterday, Makhura also conceded that today’s protest and tactics used in the fight for free education were different. He avoided blaming any of the parties involved in the impasse but emphasised his government’s wish was to restore normality to the affected institutions across the country.
“The Gauteng provincial government spends more than R300 million to ensure that students have access to these institutions. It is also for that reasons that we took a decision to sell state-owned houses and use that income to fund more students,” Makhura said.
One of the houses on sale was Makhura’s official state house in Bryanston. It sold for R11m.
While Makhura was hoping for a solution, he said his gov- ernment was engaging various vice-chancellors and students privately in a bid to resolve the dispute.
He is also hoping that the students would refrain from destroying property and escalating the damages to more than R1bn, saying it would severely affect the government’s spend- ing on other priority issues.
Makhura, however, also raised the issue of students who wanted to retur n to classes, citing the preliminary outcome of the poll conducted at Wits University on Thursday.
A total of 77 percent voted in favour to return while the rest wanted the fees protest action to continue.
“This outcome shows that at times you will need to do a tactical retreat when the mood of the majority is in favour to return.
“Otherwise you will lose the battle,” Makhura warned the student leaders.