ANCYL Provincial Chairperson Makalo Mohale

The ANC Youth League in the Free State this week came out in full support of students demanding no-fee university education.

The league says the private sector – the chief consumer of skills produced by universities – must come to the party and bankroll universities to enable every eligible young South African to attend the tertiary schools free of charge.

To find out exactly how, in the league’s view, private firms – many with significant foreign shareholding – could be made to use shareholder’s money to fund the public institutions, The Weekly’s Thapelo Molebatsi took time to speak to league provincial chairperson Makalo Mohale. Excerpts:

What is the league’s view on the decision by the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, to allow universities to increase fees by up to eight percent?
We re ject the entire argument that universities be given the latitude to increase fees up to eight percent. The minister must respect the decision of the organisation that deployed him in government which resolved that there be no fee increment.

The suggestion by the minister for universities to decide whether or by how much to increase fees takes away the hope of South African youths that there could ever be free university education.

Students have responded to Minister Nzimande’s statement with protests, many that have turned violent. What is the youth league’s take on the issue of protests?
We condemn any act of violence that results in the destroying of property. The right to protest cannot translate into the right to cause anarchy. We need these facilities to advance the education of our poor students therefore under no circumstances will we ever condone destruction of property.

Let’s go back to the central issue, the issue of whether university students should or shouldn’t’ pay fees.

You say you support the students in their demand for no-fee education, and the question is where is the money to run the universities going to come from if attendance is free of charge? Surely, shouldn’t the argument be that only the poor who cannot afford fees should be exempted?
The private sector is a major beneficiary and consumer of skills acquired through public funding. It is therefore only right that private the sector funds university education.

We call on all businesses to (fund universities) in order to achieve free university education in South Africa. Apartheid established financial institutions such as Sanlam, Momentum, ABSA, FNB and many others and these must take responsibility to pay fees for all university students from now onwards.

I really don’t see what the big hullabaloo is all about. Free education … that is what we want.

The banks and other companies you refer to are not going to volunteer their hard earned money to fund no-fee university education and neither can they be legally forced to do so. How then do you suppose they can be made to come on board with the cash?
The reality is that the private sector has not been playing ball since the dawn of democracy and this must come to an end. Political leadership is needed to ensure that they play ball.

As the leadership (of the youths) in the province we have written letters to all major banks to request them to come on board and assist the government to achieve this objective of (no-fee university education). One thing that we are not going to do is to take no for an answer.

And if they say no, if they refuse to cough up the money what will the league do?
As I’ve said, we have written to all companies that are making profit in our province to come on board so that we find an amicable solution.

This is the first peaceful step that we have taken. Should they chose to ignore our peaceful call our next step will be massive protests across the whole province and continuous consumer boycott against any business which does not cooperate with our call. We are not going to allow white monopoly capital to continue extracting profits from our province without plough back anything.

This is something that has gone on for far too long and we cannot have it anymore. People cannot keep on making money from our province and not plough back something — that is wrong. And no we are not dictating anything to anyone.

We are simply saying if they choose to turn a blind eye to our genuine call that seeks to ensure that young people of this country are guaranteed a better future we will resort to other means to ensure that they see things our way and that they understand that we are serious about this matter.

You do not want fees increased, in fact, you do not even want university students paying fees but the reality of the matter is that Minister Nzimande does not seem to share the league’s sentiments.

How then are you going to make it happen without the minister’s support?
Let us not beat around the bush, it is very wrong for an ANC minister to boldly announce decisions contradicting the decisions of the party’s highest decision making body between conferences, the NEC (national executive committee), which resolved on no-fee increment. What should happen is that the leadership of the ANC must be called to Luthuli House to account on his ill-discipline.

President Jacob Zuma has established the commission of inquiry to look into this whole issue of university fees, do you have any confidence in the structure?
We support the commission precisely because we will for the first time know how much it will cost to fund every child who wishes to study at university for free.

We remain hopeful that this consultation process led by the commission will bear fruits and will give clear indication on how much resources are necessary towards the implementation of free and quality education and not whether it is possible to implement this important resolution of the African National Congress.

League ally, the South African Students Congress (Sasco) has labelled the Justice Jonathan Arthur Heher commission a delaying tactic, and accused the ANC of not being courageous in tackling the issue of free university education, but here you are welcoming the same commission; why the contradiction between the league and Sasco over the commission?
The reality is that students are losing patience. They can no longer bear the burden of uncertainty about their future. However, it’s for the same reason that the establishment of a commission is important so that it provides us with properly researched and authentic solutions to enable us to take the matter forward. It’s not correct to shoot down the establishment of this very much needed commission aimed at giving a way forward.

Education and management experts are clear that allowing students to go to university for free will inevitably lead to the collapse of the institutions because they need money to keep running. How do you respond to that?
That is a nonsensical view in my personal opinion because you have countries like Cuba which has demonstrated that it can be done and has in fact produced some of the world’s best recognised doctors through such an approach (no-fee university education). The people claiming that free university education is impossible are in fact part of the problem.

They want us to believe that it cannot be done because there is no money and yet we know very well that there is money in abundance which these companies that have been milking the country for decades. No institution of higher learning is going to collapse.