EDITORIAL: Why Zuma's hare-brained fee plan is wrong
What government needs is a proper budgeting plan to phase in accessible education
President Jacob Zuma’s unilateral declaration of "free university education" for poor students, late last year, had absolutely nothing to do with a genuine desire to remove the real obstacles to tertiary education for this group. Many saw it immediately for what it was: a lamentable attempt at swaying the ANC leadership election towards Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, far too late. Of course, Zuma’s latest act of careless political manoeuvring shouldn’t have been a huge surprise. Only this time, it’s a gesture that will burden the fiscus with hefty unbudgeted costs, while playing havoc with the already-overburdened universities. As it is, the universities are still trying to cope with yet another of Zuma’s silly populist moves; his 2015 diktat that universities should not raise fees for the 2016 academic year. Then, as now, his announcement was made before government made available any resources to the universities to cover the shortfall. At the time, Zuma’s government was under intense pre...
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