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EFF leader Julius Malema has urged students not to give up on the cause for free education, and to consider redirecting their votes to the EFF in order to make it happen.
Speaking at the party’s Tshela Thupa final rally in Polokwane today, Malema took the ANC to task for splurging more than R1 billion on their election campaign.
“Why are you struggling if a party you have elected can spend R1 billion in three months on an election campaign? They said to you they don’t have money for free education but the ANC spent more than one billion in three months,” Malema said.
The ANC’s head of elections, Nomvula Mokonyane, allegedly responded to a question from a journalist while on the campaign trail a few weeks ago saying that the party had invested more than R1 billion rand in election machinery and preparations.
“Comrades and fellow fighters, we are saying to the students in all the universities, we are saying to students at pre-tertiary level, free education is possible. You have a wrong government. That government lacks the political will to give you free education. Elect a good government; you will see that free education is possible.”
Last year thousands of university students protested over fee increments under the campaign #FeesMustFall. President Jacob Zuma announced at the time that no university would have a fee increase for the year 2016. In addition, a commission of inquiry into higher education funding was established in January this year and was given 8 months to compile a report for the president.
However no provision or plan was made in terms of what would happen to fee increments beyond 2016.
On Friday afternoon the presidency issued a statement saying that Zuma had granted the commission an extension and that it would now complete its work by June 30 2017.
A preliminary report would be tabled by November 15 this year.
