Fee protests not a crisis, says minister

Published Oct 20, 2015

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Chantall Presence

African News Agency

PRETORIA: Student protests over fee increases, although they have resulted in the closure of several universities, were not a national crisis, Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande said yesterday as he announced an urgent meeting with representatives from universities, student bodies and workers set for today.

“Yes, it is a challenge, but I wouldn’t call it a crisis because we have ways and means of discussing the matter,” Nzimande said while addressing journalists in Pretoria.

So far, Wits, UCT, Rhodes and Fort Hare universities had been affected by the protests, Nzimande said.

“I am tomorrow (Tuesday) convening a meeting with representative delegations of vice-chancellors, university council chairs, students and workers, to discuss and come up with a common framework and approach to the issue of university fee increases for 2016,” he said.

“An approach must be developed in order to come up with a dispensation that takes into account the difficult circumstances facing especially the students who come from poor families, as well as financial pressures facing the system.”

Nzimande called on university management to be more sensitive and cautious when deciding on fee increases.

“It is imperative that they consult all relevant stakeholders in order to minimise the detrimental impact on poor students,” he said.

Nzimande also called on students to give negotiations with management a chance.

“Students need to be brought on board for frank and honest discussions so as to ensure that there is stability in our institutions.

“The management of universities must open up legitimate channels for discussion and dialogue over these matters and not allow matters to deteriorate, often due to lack of understanding and knowledge of the situation and spurred by poor communication.”

He pleaded with students and the university management to ensure they found solutions to prevent exams from being affected, as the country already had an unacceptably high failure rate.

“We really hope that exams aren’t affected. I would like to make a call and a plea that whatever the issues, let’s find a way… to protect the exam system.”

Nzimande lashed out at his detractors, who say he has responded too late.

“It’s unfair to then say when there’s misunderstanding or student protests that I’m the first port of call. I’m not the first port of call. Fees are determined independently by institutions themselves.

“When people say I’ve been absent, I don’t agree with that because we had a summit for three days last week. All these matters were being discussed at macro level.”

Nzimande was referring to the Higher Education Summit on transformation, in which a possible regulatory framework governing fee increases was discussed.

“That is what we are going to explore from now onwards. The summit also agreed we must explore that,” he said.

“A regulatory framework can say if any university is going to increase fees by double the inflation rate or 3 or 4 percent above inflation, it must get concurrence from the minister. That is one way of setting up a regulatory framework.”

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