Varsity placements: Blade lambasted over system delay

Anger as goalposts keep shifting with bill still in draft form, five years after deadly stampede at UJ

AFTER Gloria Sekwena died at the University of Johannesburg’s gates in 2012, then higher education and training minister Blade Nzimande vowed that a seamless varsity-placement system would come in within three years.

But, in a shocking turn of events, it has emerged that the system, called the Central Application Service (CAS), is earmarked to start operating only in 2024.

The finalised policy of the system has been published in the latest Government Gazette, resurrecting the hope that CAS will soon kick in.

The “one application, one fee” system would allow matrics to apply to all 26 universities in the country with one payment.

The government first identified such a system in 2002, as a way to give access to students from poor backgrounds. The late Kader Asmal, as education minister, announced plans for it the same year.

Reacting to Sekwena’s death in a stampede, Nzimande unveiled new and widely publicised plans for CAS.

Nzimande promised the system would be “developed during 2013, for piloting in 2014 and implementation in 2015”.

The department’s 2012 annual performance plan repeated these targets, saying the “service should be fully operational in 2014/2015”.

Sekwena, a 47-year-old psychiatric nurse based in England, had queued with thousands to help her son find space.

Five years since Sekwena’s death, CAS is still in the pipeline. In 2015, the department shifted the target to 2017 for implementation in 2018.

Responding to questions from The Star, higher education and training spokesperson Madikwe Mabotha indicated that the goalposts had been shifted yet again.

The finalisation of the policy was not the final step towards introducing CAS, Mabotha said. “It should be noted that the next step is the creation of the bill (currently in draft form), which needs to be taken through the parliamentary process and then the promulgation of the act, before CAS can be implemented.

“Depending on Parliament’s legislation programme, we anticipate to have completed this exercise by 2022,” he said.

“In terms of our project plan, we anticipate the system to be active for testing in 2019 for the 2020 applications and for it to be phased in across the post-school education and training system by 2024 for the 2025 applications.”

CAS would cater for more than 400 000 matrics who apply for placement at tertiary institutions each year.

KwaZulu-Natal-based universities and colleges have been using a similar system for years. Applicants there pay R200.

Universities and public colleges in other provinces handle applications individually, each charging non-refundable fees ranging from R100 to R300.

Wits University has received about 72 000 applications for 2018, while it has place for only 5 600 first-year students.

Student leaders have lambasted the department for delaying CAS. “Blade has been talking about this thing ever since he came into office (in 2009).

“In South Africa we have a problem generally, everything takes forever,” said Avela Mjajubana, president of the National Union of SA Students.

“We’re concerned about the delays. This type of delay hampers progress in the country.”

Thabo Moloja, president of the SA Students Congress, said he could not fathom the postponements, because the ANC had declared in its policy conference in June this year that CAS should start by 2018.

“This is unacceptable and inconsistent with what the ANC and the department have (previously) said. I don’t know if the new minister (Hlengiwe Mkhize) is speaking based on the policies of the ANC.”

Mabotha said: “The criticism, if looked at in isolation, seems legitimate. However, it must be understood that the consultative process towards implementing CAS has been a thorough and detailed one.”

Ahmed Bawa, chief executive of Universities SA – an umbrella body of the varsities – said institutions had come to embrace the system, although they would lose the income they drew from applications.

“After much deliberation and discussion, the universities have welcomed CAS. It follows on a successful model in KZN, which has been working for several years,” Bawa said.

“If the system works efficiently, it will provide a wonderful facility to students and universities and be cost effective for students,” he added.

In South Africa everything takes forever