Chaos looms after EFF’s call for walk-ins at universities
President Jacob Zuma’s move to scrap tuition fees for students from poor South African homes and freeze tariffs for those from working-class households may cause chaos during registration at public universities this month. Zuma unveiled the plan on December 16, two days before Cyril Ramaphosa replaced him as leader of the ANC and two days after a body representing the 26 state-owned institutions said each would raise fees by 8%. The University of SA, with more than 400,000 students, held fees at 2017 rates, it said on December 7. On January 1, the universities said they would not allow walk-in applications from people who qualified for free education, but people should instead submit details online for assessment. A day later, the opposition EFF condemned the move and called on all academically deserving students to report to universities of their choice for registration. "Zuma’s announcement on free tertiary education is very much a political project and it puts a lot of pressure o...
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