Mantashe: Free education is still ANC’s lodestar

Higher-learning institutions should stop using the ANC as a scapegoat for their decisions, as fees must indeed fall, writes Gwede Mantashe

Student demands are reasonable and understandable. This is not merely because we understand them but because they are essentially ANC policy positions.

The ANC Mangaung resolutions on higher education noted that strides were made in finalising policy on free higher education and that a draft policy on free higher education was completed and presented to Treasury for engagement. We committed to finalise policy for free higher education for all undergraduate-level students and to ensure its adoption by 2013.

In the same resolution, we noted that university education was costly and increased access to higher education was a core of our transformation agenda. We therefore resolved on a newly structured student-fund system to enable free education from 2014 onwards. The intention was that the present system should be used as a basis for introducing the new one. Consequently, we have been and will continue to be supportive of student struggles to transform institutions of higher learning.