Total shutdown won't solve historical debt problem, says Universities SA

Universities SA (USAF) says individual institutions cannot write off students' historical debt, as demanded, and there cannot be a solution wrought by protests.

“No solution will be found by shutting down universities. In fact, the impact will be on the academic year: on the quality of teaching and learning, the general learning environment and the extent to which students will graduate,” said USAF chief executive Ahmed Bawa.

Bawa’s comments come as the South African Union of Students (SAUS) has called on students across the country to embark on a total shutdown until the department of higher education has wiped off historical debts of students funded by the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS).

At North-West University (NWU), spokesperson Louis Jacobs said the Mafikeng campus was closed.

“Students prevented staff from entering the campus this morning,” said Jacobs on Wednesday. He said he did not know when the campus would open again.

At the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) on Wednesday, the security control centre at the Westville campus was petrol-bombed and bins set alight at Howard College. A student's car was also set alight.

Bawa said the historical debt was sitting at R9bn and government could not afford to simply wipe it off, as students demand.

“These are resources that would really have gone into infrastructure development, maintenance of infrastructure and other core institutional developments,” he said.

“I would argue that the resolution of the historic debt issue is a national issue. It isn't one that is going to be resolved at the institutional level. And the bulk of this debt is carried by our financially most vulnerable institutions.”

He said there needed to be “coherent” national solutions to “the issues of historic debt, student funding for the 'missing middle' and the large challenge of having sufficient student accommodation”. 

Bawa said discussions with students were under way. “Each university is engaging with its student leaders to find ways to address the issues that pertain to them.”