Cape Town – Higher Education and Training Minister Dr Blade Nzimande has welcomed an initiative by a forum representing parents to try to end the current impasse between government, students and universities over the fees must fall campaign.
The Minister said this when he briefed a joint Portfolio Committee meeting on Higher Education and Training with the Select Committee on Education and Recreation on Wednesday.
An organisation called Higher Education Parents Dialogue (HEParD), which comprises parents, student leaders, activists from the 1970s and 1980s generation and the SA Council of Churches made a joint presentation to Parliament on their efforts to mobilise all sectors of society to be involved in mediation efforts to end violent protests across several universities and ensure that the academic year proceeds.
Minister Nzimande said their efforts were commendable.
“… We welcome initiatives aimed at bringing parents closer to the situation because as a department, we have been concerned that there isn’t a parental initiative.
“Historically, education struggles have always been an alliance between students, workers and parents. So we welcome this initiative,” he said.
The Minister said this as some universities remain shut down due to ongoing protests, which in some instances escalated to violent conduct that resulted in public property being damaged and shops being looted.
Police have stepped in in an attempt to restore order and safeguard non-protesting students and public property.
Irvin Phenyane, the chairperson of HEParD, said as a short-term intervention, the organisation and the SA Council of Churches have engaged with all stakeholders, including students, in hotspot universities in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Limpopo.
Phenyane called on all political parties across the national and provincial legislatures to proactively get involved to find a solution to the current impasse.
The Minister said, meanwhile, that government had consulted extensively leading up to his announcement of a fee adjustment framework for the 2017 academic year.
In his announcement, the Minister said students that are funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) would be covered by the fees increase, which he said universities would decide upon. He said such an increase would not be above 8%.
As part of the announcement, he said students who come from households with an income of up to R50 000 a month, or the missing middle, would be exempted from such an increase. This constitutes 75% of the total undergraduate students in South Africa.
“What we are trying to correct is that those parents who can afford to pay must pay, and the wealthy must pay (sic),” said Minister Nzimande. – SAnews.gov.za
