*Draft Press Statement* November 3, 2011
*YCL statement on Walter Sisulu University* ** The Young Communist League of South Africa [uFasimba] notes news that the Walter Sisulu University [WSU] is reported to be “technically bankrupt” and that the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande has sought to correctly intervene by appointing an Administrator to deal with this impasse. It is our conceived view that the merger of Border Technikon, Eastern Cape Technikon and the University of Transkei in 2005 has contributed immensely to the bankruptcy of this institution given the fact that all of these institutions were part of the Historically Disadvantaged Institutions of higher learning. It is worth noting that prior to the merger, two of these institutions were already bankrupt and there was no proper remedial plan put in place to curb this crisis albeit earlier cautions from the Department of Higher Education. As the YCL we applaud the intervention by the Minister in that university and further extend our support to the newly appointed Administrator. While welcoming financial assistance from private financial institutions we would like to insist that such a gesture should not be treated as investment opportunities which will heavily indebt this public institution in the long run. In this we also commend these financial institutions for ensuring that workers' salaries are not affected by this crisis. We urge the Minister to further look in to the health of historically disadvantaged institution and make sure that they don’t end up like WSU. Already, the Tshwane University of Technology and University of Zululand are under administration, we say this trend must come to an end. In support of the recommendations by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme Review Committee, we wish to emphasise that financial allocations by NSFAS should be allocated directly to students from working class background. We call upon all institutional stakeholders to work with the newly appointed Administrator in ensuring that this institution gets back to its feet. Issued by YCL Head Office For more information contact: Khaya Xaba, YCL Media Liaison Officer Cell: 074 5 204 204 Landline: 011 339 3621 E-mail: [email protected] -- 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] .
