15 March 2021
The department of higher education and training cannot afford to clear historic student debt owed to institutions totalling nearly R10bn, nor can it support the call for a zero percent fee increment for the 2021 academic year, minister Blade Nzimande said at the weekend. File photo.
Image: Kopano Tlape/GCIS
The department of higher education & training cannot afford to clear historic student debt owed to institutions amounting to nearly R10bn, nor can it support the call for a zero percent fee increment for the 2021 academic year, minister Blade Nzimande said at the weekend.
He was responding to a long list of demands made by the South African Union of Students (SAUS), which among other things called for the scrapping of debt of all students to ensure smooth registration processes.