Zuma backs Blade in fees crisis
PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma has thrown his weight behind embattled Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande as the fees crisis engulfing universities keeps campuses shut around the country.
Zuma pledged his “full support and that of cabinet” for Nzimande, the Presidency said yesterday.
Zuma’s intervention is significant in light of an outright attack on the minister by the ANC Youth League earlier this week, raising concerns that the crisis would be used to fuel factional battles in the governing party in a bid to weaken Nzimande and the SACP, of which he is the general secretary.
Amid continued speculation about a looming cabinet reshuffle that could see a purge of SACP ministers and deputy ministers, the Presidency statement appears to have been an attempt to quash the rumours.
Nzimande and his SACP colleagues have been at the forefront in recent months in calls for a full investigation into state capture, which has become a shorthand reference to allegations that the Gupta family wield undue influence through the president, over cabinet appointments and government decision-making.
This follows the row over Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane’s claim – refuted by the Presidency – that the cabinet had resolved on a judicial inquiry into the country’s top banks over their decision to terminate the Guptas’ business accounts.
Zwane also questioned the application of the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, in terms of which suspicious transactions must be reported by the banks. Pressure on Zuma to sign into law an amendment to the act which would tighten scrutiny of high-profile politicians mounted this week.
While the Progressive Professionals Forum, led by former cabinet spokesman Jimmy Manyi, has petitioned Zuma not to sign the amendment, Economic Development Minister Ebrahim Patel not only called on him to sign it, but said cabinet ministers and other top government officials should be subjected to lifestyle audits so they could “account for every cent” in their bank accounts.
Rifts in the governing party have widened since its humiliation in the recent local government elections, as it grapples with the implications of the results for its prospects in the 2019 national and provincial polls.
Responses have ranged from calls for Zuma to step down or be recalled, to a call for an early elective conference to install an uncontested new leadership.
Nzimande alle ged this week there were “other political agendas” behind continued protests following his announcement on Monday that the government would cover the fee increase for 2017 for poor students and the “missing middle”.
The Presidency said yesterday Zuma was “concerned about the violence” that had broken out following Nzimande’s announcement on fees. “We wish to remind all that education is a societal matter,” Zuma said.
“We must all work together to find solutions to the highereducation access challenge. From parents, business, community, labour, religious leaders, traditional leaders, political parties and communities in general, let us find solutions together,” he added.
“It is not a matter that must be resolved by government alone, or by the Department of Higher Education and Training alone,” Zuma said.
He took a hard line on the destruction of property that has marred some of the protests, saying it was “a criminal offence and will be treated as such by law enforcement”.
“We have directed the police to ensure that all such cases reach the courts and that those responsible answer for their actions,” Zuma said.