SOUTH AFRICA: Poor will pay for free higher education

The university vice-chancellors' association, Higher Education South Africa (HESA), has challenged the concept of free higher education, arguing that all South Africans - including the poor - will have to foot the bill, reports the Mail & Guardian. The ruling African National Congress-linked South African Students' Congress (Sasco) and the South African Union of Students (SAUS) have called for free university education.

A SAUS conference explored the possibility of free higher education last week. Last December, the ANC's annual conference resolved that the government should progressively introduce free education for the poor up to undergraduate level.

But HESA representative Jody Cedras told the Mail & Guardian that a policy of 'free' higher education would benefit wealthy students and adversely affect the poor. Said Cedras: "There is no 'free' higher education. In practice it would be paid for by all citizens, including the permanently poor, through indirect taxes, whether or not they know they have been taxed. A big percentage of the beneficiaries of higher education are from the richer segments of society who can pay a portion of the costs of instruction." Cedras said South Africa had a continuum of possibilities, including a wholly subsidised higher education system in which graduates are entirely at the service of the state.
Full report on the Mail & Guardian site