‘Zuma plan courting crisis’
Free education would cripple SA, expert says
If President Jacob Zuma moves ahead with an alleged plan to announce free education across the board through a controversial funding scheme, it would spell disaster for the country, a leading educationalist said.
TimesLIVE yesterday morning exclusively revealed that the plan, apparently devised by Zuma’s future son-inlaw, Morris Masutha, and which would also fly in the face of official ANC policy, could see the cutting of departmental budgets across government to make R40-billion available for the 2018 academic year.
Zuma has been withholding the 748-page Heher Commission report, in which retired judge Jonathan Heher reportedly found that universal free tertiary education was not feasible.
Leading educationalist Professor Jonathan Jansen said for universities, fees were a recurring cost that had to be paid from government coffers every year.
“There are over one million people every year and growing who will expect free education. We don’t have money for this recurring expenditure.”
Jansen also said submissions made to the Heher Commission showed that fee-free higher education was not attainable at present.
“I think this idea of a fee-free higher education for all is fundamentally unfair. Kids who are rich and who can pay must pay and those who cannot afford it but [are] eligible should not pay.
“Let us hope the speculation that the president will announce free higher education for all is wrong because it is unsustainable.”
Masutha, who is engaged to be married to Thuthukile Zuma, the president’s youngest daughter from his marriage to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, referred questions to National Treasury. The Presidency said Zuma had no announcements scheduled imminently.
Masutha, who has apparently acted as Zuma’s “point man” on the fees issue, has made presentations to ANC officials and an inter-ministerial cabinet committee on his self-devised funding plan, which essentially revises the National Treasury’s entire budget.
Zuma has apparently assigned Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe and his director-general Mpumi Mpofu the task of implementing the plan, which requires cutbacks in departmental budgets to make funding available. Mpofu, who was appointed in July, is said to have been working with a team from Treasury to “find the money for Zuma”.
A government insider said the matter was dealt with directly by the director-general outside of the ordinary work of the department.
If the plan is moved on, it is likely to cause chaos throughout the state system as budgets are allocated according to programmes.
It also undermines Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba’s statements when he presented the medium-term budget policy statement last month. He said a funding shortfall of more than R61-billion over the next three years would be created if government were to finance the full cost of study for 40% of undergraduates.
If Masutha’s plan is adopted it could be an instant trigger for a credit downgrade to junk status by ratings agencies.