Nthato Motlana’s high-profile team that is supposed to be raising R300-million for higher education has been hit by criticism, reports Philippa Garson
THE high-powered team of academics and business executives set up by the education department last year to raise money for needy students has not yet raised a cent.
Some members of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG), officially launched in June and headed by businessman Nthato Motlana, are known to be “seriously concerned” about the lack of momentum regarding the group’s endeavours to raise in the region of R300-million for student loans and bursaries for 1997.
Some of the group’s members, particularly the academic contingent, are reportedly so disillusioned with its inability to respond to the urgency of the looming financial crisis they have threatened to resign.
Motlana is currently abroad but the group is to meet next month with members of the department to discuss a plan of action for fund-raising.
“If anything will cause the system to implode it is that very little has happened. We are a year later [since recommendations on the funding crisis were made and the EPG was formed] and there is very little evidence of a financial aid system,” said one policy-maker.
Outgoing vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town and EPG member Stuart Saunders said he had not threatened to resign but added: “The establishment of a viable and effective financial aid scheme must be a top priority.”
The delays are due partly to the withdrawal of the National Party from the government, which prompted a reshuffle in the education ministry.
The former deputy education minister Renier Schoeman from the National Party, whose job it was to drive the fund-raising process in conjunction with the department, left his post without accomplishing much. He was replaced by Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, an African National Congress stalwart who has no background in education.
Students from the South African Students’ Congress were due to march to the Union Buildings this week in a day of national mass action to push the government to “introduce a blanket moratorium on financial exclusions” and scrap the R100-million debt owed by students to universities around the country.
Their action comes in the wake of last week’s summit on transformation where stakeholders haggled over a blueprint for steering reform at all institutions of higher learning.
Although progress was made at the meeting, with a blueprint expected to be negotiated by next month, the summit is now the subject of new controversy.
Higher education chief director Ithumeleng Mosala is being investigated by the education department and the attorney general’s office for awarding Conference Link, which is run by personal friends of his, the contract to organise the summit.
This is being interpreted as a move by some officials in the department to get rid of Mosala, who is a contender for the vice-chancellorship of the University of Durban-Westville. Mosala, who is in Kenya, was this week unavailable for comment.
Spokesman for the education ministry Lincoln Mali said several officials involved in organising the conference were “being investigated to see if proper procedures were followed”.
Mali criticised the students for unrealistic demands when some pupils were forced to learn under trees. “This government cannot pay for enough classrooms for adult learners, for early childhood educare. How then can we contemplate giving free higher education? We are very firm on that.”
Education minister Sibusiso Bengu this week slammed the student action in view of the fact that only R75-million of the R345-million made available for student loans by government had so far been used.
But Roy Jackson, the director of the Tertiary Education Fund of South Africa, said money was being withdrawn according to schedule and the department would be in trouble if any more loans had been drawn. Jackson said loans were taken in clumps in October (before exams) and March (after registration) and the R95-million that had so far been drawn, an amount far exceeding his estimated projections.
“The story that students are not taking up money is absolute rubbish. The R300-million will be utilised come March 1997,” said Jackson. “If more than R95- million had been drawn down we would be looking at a far more tense October than we are going to see.”
Jackson said he was “concerned” that more money be injected to avoid another registration crisis early next year. The National Commission on Higher Education recommended that R750-million would be needed to fund needy students this year, but other estimates put the figure at R1-billion.
Meanwhile, the finance group tasked by the National Commission on Higher Education to make recommendations on funding the sector warns that serious problems for students lie ahead if tertiary education fees are rapidly increased without a viable national student financial aid scheme in place.
While the sector is set to increase by bringing far more students into higher education, most of them will be financially needy.
At the same time, with state funding directed at redressing imbalances in the provinces and being whittled away from the national coffers, it is unlikely that government funding of the sector will increase in the next decade, says the group.