Closing remarks at the Multi Stakeholder Forum on Universities by Higher Education and Training Minister Blade Nzimande
Comrades,
friends,
representatives from across our country and our society gathered here today,
My first and foremost duty is to thank all of you for being here today.
It is you who have made this day possible and ultimately productive: student leadership, faith leaders, traditional leaders, trade union and business leaders, leaders from across our society.
It is you who have taken the trouble to be here and have listened to each other. It is you who together will ensure that we move forward. This is not something we as government can do alone, and so we are grateful to all of you for your time, your energy, and your commitment.
We have heard you all loud and clear. We have heard the student leadership telling us about the pressures they are facing. We have heard the pleas from across our society that the coming weeks and months should remain peaceful and focused.
We must recognise that we are dealing with two clear and distinct phenomena.
Firstly, we all agree that there is a genuine issue around the affordability of higher education and training, as we strive to sustain the ability of our institutions to hold their weight as places of learning, teaching, and research in the international arena.
And as we strive to ensure greater access as we transform our institutions.
And secondly, there is ongoing destruction and intimidation by tiny groups. Destruction and intimidation we agree must stop.
We have watched very closely throughout today what has been going on at the universities. At some universities there have been attempts to disrupt those who are at work.
But here is the point: at one university, the disruption has been the work of a total of 30 people. Nobody even knows whether they are genuine students.
The task, therefore, is to assure the student leadership that they have the backing of every organisation represented in this room as they work to ensure that every student who wants to is able to complete this academic year in peace and safety.
We all know that an inability to complete this academic year means poverty for many who don’t get their degrees and the possibility for many others that they will not be able return to university next year. This will affect the most marginalised most forcefully.
We all agree that free education for the poor is our ultimate goal. We have a process in place which will draw the roadmap to get there.
Let us give that process the space that it needs.
In the meantime, let me leave you with the following: the task of every single person in this room for the next several weeks and months is to give our students and our young people support as they complete the academic year.
To give our students and our young people every possible support and leadership as they ensure that there is no further destruction at our institutions of higher education and training.
This is a task for all of us.
Let us leave here and get down to work.
Enquiries:
Harold Maloka
Cell: 082 847 9799
