Business Day
*Nzimande a star of the Cabinet* *Zelda Kgatla, Letters, Business Day, Johannesburg, 3 November 2011 *I'm not privy to the happenings within the South African Communist Party and its alliance partners; quite frankly I couldn't care less. But isn't it fascinating that we are preoccupied with marginal politics and fail to give credit where it's due?
For me, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande stands out as one of the best appointments in President Jacob Zuma 's Cabinet.
Mr Nzimande strikes me as a genuine leader, who drives change without fear or favour. I believe that if we want to make SA a world-class country, we've got to stop small politics and support all hard-working South Africans, not only in the government but across the board. Above and beyond speaking out against corruption and tenderpreneurs (something he is most hated for ), Mr Nzimande has introduced financial relief to final- year students at tertiary level, turning part of student loans into a 100% bursary upon passing their final-year exams, from this year.
Again, final-year students who could not finish their studies or could not receive their degrees or certificates due to outstanding fees have been given an opportunity to apply for the special fund to clear their debts, and the deadline has been extended to January 31 next year. I'm sure Mr Nzimande will not hesitate to increase the budget to this special fund, depending on students' response.
He rang the changes at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme amid threats of court challenges but remained resolute until the entity began operating professionally with all energies channelled to meeting its primary mandate.
It came as no surprise recently when the scheme presented its first clean audit in many years, a monumental milestone compared with the disclaimers that were the norm in previous years. Yet again, I did not hear celebrations about that.
What about sector education and training authorities (Setas ), which for a decade spent billions of rand on short-term courses without really producing ground-breaking solutions to skills shortages? Setas wanted to continue business as usual, but Mr Nzimande, at the risk of being hauled to the courts again, soldiered on.
Today, Setas look better organised and are geared towards tackling the scarcity of critical skills required to drive our economy. Mr Nzimande is a driver of change.
*Zelda Kgatla Chuenespoort *** -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
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