Cut bigwigs’ salaries to fund free higher education‚ student union tells commission
Salaries of university vice-chancellors‚ government ministers‚ mayors and municipal managers should be reduced to fund free higher education. Presidents who leave office must go into retirement and not receive the income they were receiving while in office.This could assist in funding free higher education.These are some of the suggestions proposed by the South African Union of Students (SAUS)‚ a federation of 26 student representative councils‚ at the Fees Commission on Wednesday.SAUS has called for the free education to be provided to the poor and the “missing middle” from 2017.The missing middle are the students who are “too rich” to qualify for National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) support but too poor to afford fees and qualify for commercial loans.“We have ministers that earn R150,000 per month. The salaries of the ministers must be reduced‚” its president Avela Mjajubana said.Mjajubana said government needed to develop capacity to deal with corruption and also to prevent wasteful expenditure so that wasted funds could be used for higher education.“There should also be a conversion of NSFAS into a bursary scheme‚” Mjajubana said.The commission was established in January to inquire into‚ report on and make recommendations on the feasibility of a fee-free higher education and training in South Africa. ..
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