Student protests usher in a new dawn: Ramaphosa
The recent protests by South African students against rising university fees have ushered in a new dawn for the country, and highlighted the need for the private sector to help fund higher education, Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday.
Speaking in the National Council of Provinces, Ramaphosa said anwers to the university funding crisis could not come from government alone, but from the private sector, university authorities and students themselves.
“If we all work together – the private sector, government, various organisations, including university authorities, student bodies themselves – we can find answers and one of the first ports of call is obviously government,” he said.
“The second [port of call] will be the financial institutions, the private sector as a whole. There is an answer and we can try and explore that answer.”
Ramaphosa said the country’s financial institutions, including private banks, had already been approached to assist.
“I have even made the suggestion that the government rolls out R9.5 billion of the NSFAS [National Student Financial Aid Scheme] and surely that amount of money, which is a big chunk of money, can be leveraged by financial institutions, maybe two times, maybe three times. It could even be done four times to make sure that we have funding available to fund young people who want to go to universities,” the deputy president said.
Ramaphosa said government would not be adopting a piecemeal approach, but would be seeking answers to all the the woes facing students in the higher education sector.
“This is a moment that we should not dismiss. It’s a moment that we should all utilise to address all these issues in totality… it’s almost a new dawn, a new moment which will yield even better answers.” - ANA
(File photo: Gallo Images)