The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is once again making headlines for all the wrong reasons.
The issues, which were raised this week in the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, include allegations of unauthorised remuneration of consultants, problems with the payment of accommodation allowances and general poor administration.
It casts a harsh light on the remarks of the former Minister of Education, Dr Naledi Pandor, about the independent Afrikaans university, Akademia.
Her engagement with Dr Mbuyiseni Ndlozi on the African Renaissance podcast on 11 August included a comprehensive and stimulating discussion of the state of academic and intellectual life in South Africa.
As the granddaughter of Prof. ZK Matthews, former rector of the University of Fort Hare, she related Matthews’s uphill struggle to simultaneously pursue political liberation and top academic quality.
Then their conversation digressed a little and turned to Akademia, which both interlocutors condemned as an attempt by former oppressors to retain their position.
Having Afrikaans as the medium of instruction and Akademia successfully raising approximately R3 billion for the construction of a new campus serve, according to the discussion, as proof of this supposition.
It is against this backdrop that the Minister of Higher Education, Mr Buti Manamela, and his Department appeared before the parliamentary Portfolio Committee to account for alleged unauthorised payments and poor administration at NSFAS, the state’s financial aid scheme for students.
This Department’s budget for the current financial year is approximately R150 billion, of which about R50 billion is paid out in direct subsidies to 26 public universities – all of which use English as medium of instruction.
A further R54 billion is allocated to NSFAS to financially assist students at public universities and colleges – not a single cent goes to Afrikaans education.
Neither the capital outlay of R3 billion, obtained from private sources, nor the use of Afrikaans as medium of instruction can be painted as a form of oppression. On the contrary, it is an effort to escape the scorn and even oppression of a monolingual state culture in higher education.
The absurdity of these remarks may cause one to simply dismiss them. However, they reveal a pervasive and dangerous trend taking root in South Africa: branding efforts in the civil sphere (i.e., endeavours undertaken in the public interest without state funding) as increasingly controversial.
For role players such as Pandor and Ndlozi, it is not enough that all state expenditure on education serves the dominant ideology; civil expenditure must do so as well. Such a stance paves the way for a totalitarian state, and should be vehemently opposed.
And that is the role that the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) gladly fulfils on the political stage.
Freedom Front Plus Public Safety: The FF Plus prioritizes public safety and community policing initiatives.
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