SACP Northern Cape Province on the Fees Must Fall Campaign

22 October 2015

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Northern Cape Province has assessed the recent developments within our institutions of higher learning across the country on fee increases. As the Party we agree with the progressive student movement that the current funding model for higher education needs to be reviewed as part of the steps that must be taken to implement the progressive introduction of free quality education especially for the working class and the poor who are not in a position of afford.

The belly of the "feesmustfall campaign" is located within the historically white universities. This is important to recognize. The masses of our people must be reminded that it is these universities that developed and were used to sustain white monopoly capital and apartheid colonialism in our country.

Since our democratic breakthrough of 1994, government has successfully increased access to higher education for the children of the working class. While as the SACP we understand that this is not yet enough, we must also say that it took place under difficult conditions. This has further been exacerbated by the 2008 global financial crises, which is not over yet, and which in our view allowed the business interests that have been supporting these universities to review their support in some cases. The brunt has been shifted to students, particularly the working class.

As the SACP in the province we support the interventions by the Department of Higher Education and Training Minister, Comrade Blade Nzimande. This includes the decision to increase NSFAS Funding from R3 billion to R9.5 from billion from 2009 and further building two new universities while doubling access to TVET Colleges in which many students already received free education on the basis of merit through conversion of NSFAS into bursaries. As the SACP, we agree with, and fully support the need to put a moratorium on all increases of student fees pending further consultations and engagements with all stakeholders.

We wish to caution against populism and grandstanding using genuine concerns of students to advance narrow political and factional interests by some. These tactics, common with regime change agendas and anti-communist rhetoric will not contribute to finding amicable solutions to the challenges of higher education.

Issued by the SACP Northern Cape

For enquiries please contact

Norman Shushu - Provincial Secretary
Cell: 076 511 9929

or

Patrick Bosiame - Provincial Spokesperson
Cell: 081 374 8233