Nzimande’s skipping of oral questions proves he doesn’t care for students

The DA notes with astonishment that the Minister of Higher Education and Training, Blade Nzimande, will not be present in tomorrow’s sitting of the National Assembly (NA) to answer questions on what he and his ANC government will do to immediately find additional funding to service the higher education funding shortfall of R2.7 billion ahead of the academic year. The Minister’s priorities are evidently warped.

It was confirmed in the National Assembly’s Programming Committee (NAPC) that Minister Nzimande would not be present to answer questions from Members of Parliament (MPs) in the NA tomorrow. Specifically, he won’t be present to answer the DA’s question which pertains directly the immediate crisis.

This was allegedly due to him being out of the country for a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) conference. 

While global education is important it cannot be prioritised over the education of the students left back home who are his foremost priority. The allegations of his departure from the country notwithstanding, the fact remains that he will not be in the House answering the questions he ought to be as a matter of priority.

This is as inexplicable as it is deeply concerning given that this is an immediate apex priority that he is duty-bound to resolve as the custodian of our nation’s higher learning. 

Instead, the unsurprisingly absent Minister has deemed it fit to abdicate his responsibilities in this regard. It is disgraceful and a slap in the face for the thousands of South African students who desperately need access to higher education that this shortfall is likely to preclude them from next year.

Throughout this funding crisis Minister Nzimande- when not dodging accountability-  has displayed arrogance and disinterest in finding the necessary funding.

All the while the DA is working tirelessly to amend the Medium Term Budget and proposing further adjustments to it to free up the R2.7 billion needed to fund scores of poor students who look to enrol in tertiary institutions next year.

As such I will be writing to the Leader of Government Business, Cyril Ramaphosa, requesting that Minister Nzimande be summoned to Parliament to fulfil his mandate and tell the nation where he is going to find the funding to mitigate the impending student unrest and the preclusion of students form enrolling in the 2016 academic year.

Nzimande remains a man without a plan on higher education. This needs to change, and soon, if young South Africans are to be equipped to pursue a better future.

Issued by Prof Belinda Bozzoli, DA Shadow Minister of Higher Education and Training, 3 November 2015