The parliamentary portfolio committee on higher education, science and innovation held an urgent meeting with the South African Union of Students and the SA TVET students association to unpack the challenges that have hindered the commencement of the 2023 academic year.
This follows the protest action that spread across the country last week, with students raising issues relating to historic debt, financial exclusion and accommodation challenges.
Committee chair Nompendulo Mkhatshwa said the committee convened the meeting to get a proper account from students on their issues, so that when the committee raises their issues on their behalf, with management and the department, they will be in a better position to bridge those gaps.
“We’ve given colleagues [institutions of higher learning] time and space to do their work, but we are concerned when matters are not resolved. Yet we were brought into confidence regarding the state of readiness that we should have a much better academic start to the year than we’ve had in the past,” said the MP.
Mkhatshwa said the sector had moved backwards this year compared with last year.
Among the issues of contestation are the R45,000 accommodation allowance cap by NSFAS, which students say does not meet the demands of the accommodation options offered in and around their institutions.
Mkhatshwa revealed that NSFAS was working towards alleviating pressures that the accommodation cap has placed on the system.
“I’m glad that the South African Union of Students is resolute and supports the cap. I don’t believe we should be having a challenge with universities, they are within the system, we shouldn’t have public institutions that do not want to adhere to the R45,000 cap. Particularly because NSFAS confirmed that they did consult with USAF on the cap last year,” said the committee chairperson.
However, she admitted, the challenge lay mainly with private accommodation service providers because, despite NSFAS having consulted a structure that represents them, the committee was not certain to what extent NSFAS has influence because they are in the private sector.
“As things stand, the communication, lobbying, and engagement needs to be beefed up. NSFAS also communicated a call for service providers who want to adhere to the R45,000 cap to come on board, to use the NSFAS accommodation portal and indicate their interest to provide the kind of support that the system needs at the moment,” said the MP.
Mkhatshwa added that theirs was an oversight role and when they see student protests on the rise, they ought to be concerned.
“For example, there are instances where we will conduct oversight and assess that there is disjuncture between stakeholders and we can predict that there will be some conflict and recommend intervention. In other instances we did not expect protest action and are surprised when we see disruption to the developments,” said Mkhatshwa.
The committee chair expressed the need for the relationship between management and students to be analysed, with a focus on institutional autonomy versus co-operative governance.
“University management seems to not appreciate the voice of students, the voice of workers, the voice of the portfolio committee, the voice of the government and the voice of the communities by appreciating that they are public institutions.
“Others want to argue that they don’t get enough money from government. Even if we were giving 1c to the system, they would still be public institutions and would still have to adhere to co-operative governance,” said the MP.
Mkhatshwa took a swipe at the resurgence of private security sent in to manage protest action, after reports of brutality, violence and clashes with students.
“The committee had a meeting last year with SAPS and Setas responsible for security, and raised the concern around protest protocol and policy.
“We’ve been questioning why we are bringing in private security on campus because they have no appreciation for institutional culture. You cannot hold them to account, there have been reports that they do not have badges. Our view is that private security should not have to be on campus, unless there is some state of emergency that our internal security cannot manage.
“The committee chair said that the sector needed to put up systems, policies, protocols, that will guide everyone across the spectrum how the sector ought to interact with student protest on campus.
“So that students understand which rules and guidelines they are meant to follow, and that it is clear and doesn't depend on which vice-chancellor is at the helm at the time and whether he/she has the skill to negotiate, mediate and resolve conflict,” said the chairperson.
Mkhatshwa added that the department must try to influence protocol.
“Management brings in security support way too early, before they’ve gone through enough measures of negotiation and mediation and that does not help the situation,” she said.
The committee chair announced that after the meeting with students, they would table the issues to the department and NSFAS to find a way forward to restore peace and resolutions in the sector.
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