Students threaten force in fees row

Growing fury over ‘deliberate’ delay in free-education probe

ENRAGED by the snail’s pace of the inquiry into the feasibility of free education, students are vowing to take their fight back to the streets. And in a take-no-prisoners move, they are calling for the salaries of university vice-chancellors‚ government ministers and state employees such as municipal managers and mayors to be cut to fund free higher education.

The students also want business owners to be taxed more.

The Fees Commission started its public hearings at Wits University in Johannesburg yesterday, with the hope of finding an amicable solution to students’ demands for free education in institutions of higher learning.

According to the commission’s programme, led by Judge Jonathan Heher, the team will then move to other provinces, including the Eastern Cape, in three weeks’ time.

Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University media manager Zandile Mbabela said the university had yet to receive a formal invitation to present to the commission.

“Our understanding, though, is that the commission intends inviting presentations to it in East London on September 2,” she said.

Avela Mjajubana, president of the South African Union of Students (SAUS) which led last year’s #FeesMustFall campaign, said yesterday: “It pains me that a cleaner at a university could earn R5 000 and the vice-chancellor earns R150 000 a month. The salary of the vice-chancellor must be cut to fund free education [and] ministers who earn over R50 000 must [have their pay] reduced.”

Another union leader, Fasiha Hassa, said: “We will be taken seriously and, if need be, [we will do so] by force.”

Hassa said institutions of higher learning were volatile, and the need for free and goodquality education was urgent.

They could not go back to the students with nothing. “If this means we need to shut down [universities] and again prove the power of students, we will do so,” she said.

Last year, the country was rocked by widespread protests by students.

This prompted President Jacob Zuma to establish the commission to look into the feasibility of free higher education.

Hassa, the secretary-general of SAUS, a forum of student representative councils of 26 universities, said they wanted direct access to Zuma.

The union took on commission chairman Heher yesterday, expressing their disappointment with the inquiry’s progress.

The students were also angered by the commission’s failure to engage them on their presentation.

Hassa said they had expected to be engaged on their presentation but were now being told that this would be done in another session.

She claimed this was a deliberate attempt to delay the commission’s work.

In their submissions, the students called for

If this means we need to shut down [universities] . . . we will do so

the docking of salaries of public office bearers, nationalisation of banks and mines, higher taxes for the rich, an end to corruption and a 2.5% increment in education spend to fund free education.

They said former state presidents who retired should also not continue to receive the salaries they earned while in office.

Mjajubana said they had no confidence in the commission and were disappointed that since its establishment six months ago “it has only dealt with logistics”.

“We are putting on record that we have the masses of our people behind us and we are going to meet in the streets ... for the attainment of free education,” he said.

Mjajubana said the union’s short-term goal was to ensure higher education was free for the poor and “missing middle”.

The missing middle are the students who are “too rich” to qualify for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) support, but too poor to afford fees and qualify for commercial loans.

“But [ultimately] free education must be for all‚” Mjajubana said.

The students want free education as early as the next financial year.

Union treasurer-general Misheck Mugabe asked what would happen to students who did not have the money to register.

“What is going to happen to the fee increases that are being proposed by vicechancellors?” he asked.

The commission was established in January after students went on a rampage in October, demanding that fees be scrapped.

This forced Zuma to stop universities from increasing fees.

The commission will be in East London on September 1 and 2, and will interview stakeholders including unions and student organisations of the University of Fort Hare, Walter Sisulu University, Rhodes University and Port Elizabeth’s NMMU.

Commission spokesman Musa Ndwandwe said they had processed more than 180 written submissions from universities, student groups and organisations, the private and public sector and members of the public so far, with supplementary submissions still being received.

He said a preliminary report had to be submitted to Zuma by November.

“The final report will be completed for the president in March,” he said.

“The mandate is to look into the feasibility of fee-free higher education.

“If the commission finds it feasible, it will have to provide information on how it will be funded and who will be funding it.”

Presentations would not take place at every university but in every province.