ANC stance on med school quotas

THE Indian community has knocked on the ANC’s door about student access to the UKZN medical school. We have listened carefully. Whenever a solution is needed to any problem, every community turns to the ANC. We take that responsibility seriously. We are a movement for all our people, whatever their race, class or ethnic background.

On the medical school matter we have committed to engaging UKZN on its access policy. Since I announced this at the ANC Mandela Day rally in Phoenix to over 5 000 members of the Indian community, more of them have approached ANC offices to put forward their cases. The opposition too have thrown in their penny’s worth linking our statements to the elections. That is their mistaken prerogative.

Our track record is that the ANC is every day working among our people, whether it is elections or not. ANC statements always align with our core principles. Non-racialism is one. South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white. That commitment from the 1955 Freedom Charter finds expression in our constitution, which also compels us to look at the background of an individual as we seek to remedy historical imbalances.

Imbalances

Affirmative action is a necessary strategy to correct the imbalances of our divided past. The position of our democratic government since 1994 is to create a better life for all. The ANC disagrees with the view that is common among the opposition, that access to universities must be based solely on merit and the ability to pay fees. We disagree because the ANC is committed to the radical transformation of our society.

When we meet with the UKZN leadership, we want to put the case of considering an individual’s background. It pains us as the ANC that clearly deserving students from the Indian community have been turned away from the UKZN medical school because of the rigid manner in which they have applied the quotas in their admissions policy. This is not interfering with university autonomy. As the ANC, we have a stake in representing the case that our people have brought to us.

South Africans of Indian descent are 7% of the KZN population. If we understand it correctly, the application of current UKZN policy results in 19% of its medical school spaces going to students from the Indian community. However, mechanical number crunching will not assist us in addressing the issues brought forward.

Ultimately we want to expand opportunities for medical students. The work of the provincial government to bring in foreign medical school opportunities remains good work in progress. As things stand, we believe that a nuanced approach to medical school access is necessary. An academically gifted student of Indian-origin from a disadvantaged background must be prioritised for access above his or peers from better-off backgrounds. This will ensure that the pupils with 10 As from a state school in Chatsworth will have an advantage over someone from a private school, for instance. We want to extract that kind of commitment from UKZN as we seek to convince them to review their quota policy.

We also want to talk about the medical school developing electives for students who have studied abroad to sit for exams that will enable them to meet the criteria of the Health Professions Council to practise locally.

In every instance that members of the Indian community have spoken to us about medical education, we have been moved by their passion. Doctors from the Indian community have not only been of great service to all our people but have also been active in the struggle for democracy. I think of Professors Jerry Coovadia, Salim Abdul Karim, Noddy Jinabhai, Bugsy Singh and others. I think of Drs Goonum, Poonie Naidoo and CN Pillay. Many among them had to go abroad to study medicine and returned home to serve all our people. We must treasure this heritage.

At the behest of the ANC since 1994, all our medical schools are now open to all. I would hazard a guess that there are now more Indian students at medical schools around the country than when they could only go to the UKZN medical school.

These are facts that must influence this debate as we sit down with UKZN to develop a more equitable access policy.

Zikalala is the chairman of the ANC in KZN and serves as MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental

Affairs.