MGOLogoShort.JPG Nzimande: Free higher education for all won't be government policy for a long time Prega Govender, Mail and Guardian, 13 October 2016 Another bruising showdown is looming between student formations and higher education minister Blade Nzimande, after he said that free higher education for all was not government policy and "it's not going to be government policy for a long time to come". Nzimande was making his presentation before the commission of inquiry that was tasked with investigating the feasibility of providing fee-free higher education. The commission hosted public hearings in Centurion, Pretoria, today. "We are a highly unequal society. Those who can afford to pay must pay and those who are rich and wealthy must also pay. It's inappropriate for a society like ours to define decommodification in that manner. It must be the poor and those who cannot afford [to pay] who must actually be assisted," he said. Nzimande's comments are expected to anger the South African Union of Students (SAUS) as well as the South African Students' Congress (SASCO) and the Economic Freedom Fighters student command that have been demanding free higher education. Asked by the chairperson of the commission, Judge Jonathan Heher, whether he understood that students were demanding free education for everybody, Nzimande replied: "Some of them, not all of them, are actually putting this slogan and some of the academics are saying it must be free for everyone. They want free quality higher education now." "[In South Africa now], what we are doing is part of decommodification of education by saying to those who cannot pay that it must not be like a commodity they can't afford. But to pay for the rich is not decommodification; you will be asking the poor to subsidise the rich if you ask everybody, including the rich, to be paid for by government." Judge Heher told Nzimande that some students had suggested that providers of private education should be thrown in jail, to which Nzimande quipped: "In my young days I used to say so, judge, not that my ideological orientation has changed." "But we should take into account context. Let me put it like this. Some have argued in Cuba higher education is free for everyone. Of course it should be because there's no wealthy class in Cuba so there's a different situation altogether. "You can't in a highly unequal capitalist society have free higher education for all even where you have had that in some few countries." Asked by Judge Heher whether free education for all would become a possibility if the percentage of poor became very small, Nzimande said: "Possibly or if you have a socialist South Africa, judge. But on this trajectory we are on as a country, it's difficult to see that in the immediate future." Said Nzimande: "If South Africa remains the kind of society with this economic system that it has, I don't see that happening under that context." From: <http://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-13-nzimande-free-higher-education-for-all-w ont-be-government-policy-for-a-long-time> http://mg.co.za/article/2016-10-13-nzimande-free-higher-education-for-all-wo nt-be-government-policy-for-a-long-time __________ Information from ESET NOD32 Antivirus, version of virus signature database 14273 (20161013) __________ The message was checked by ESET NOD32 Antivirus. http://www.eset.com -- -- 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] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/004201d22559%243fb06e90%24bf114bb0%24%40com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
