The SA Union of Students calls for SRCs to push for fee decrease
The South African Union of Students is calling for all Student Representative Councils (SRC) across the country to engage university management to push for the fee increment to go down as far as possible.
The union has been reacting to the recommendation by Higher Education and Training Minister, Blade Nzimande that universities should not go above 8% when implementing fee increases.
Nzimande says students from poor backgrounds and those from the so-called 'missing middle' will be exempt from the increases.
The union's Avela Mjajubana says they have already met with Tshwane University of Technology's management and agreed on a zero-percent increase.
"This is a temporary measure for 2017 as the minister made it clear, there is the commission that will speak about free education and ours is not about dividing students. But the private sector also needs to play a role because this measure is temporary. The private sector hasn't played a crucial role in terms of funding for higher education," he said.
He has also welcomed the news that government will assist those students who come from families earning less than R600 000 a year.
Meanwhile, Nzimande says those who can afford to pay for their tertiary education must do so.