SA is ready to fund free university education - Gigaba

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba will deliver his budget speech in February. PHOTO: Phando Jikelo / ANA

Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba will deliver his budget speech in February. PHOTO: Phando Jikelo / ANA

Published Jan 16, 2018

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Johannesburg - Government is pushing

ahead with a plan to offer free university education to students

from poor households and will announce funding details in next

month's budget, Finance Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.

President Jacob Zuma said last month the government would

bankroll the tuition without giving details of how it would be

funded. The announcement rattled financial markets and critics

said it was a populist promise that risked widening an already

gaping budget deficit.

A government report and the treasury said the plan is

unaffordable. Some critics also said the timing of the

announcement, which came days before Zuma stepped down as leader

of the African National Congress, showed he no longer

cared about fiscal responsibility.

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Gigaba told reporters at a televised briefing in Pretoria that costs estimates had been finalized and the plan

would be implemented over eight years.

"The president found himself in an invidious position ....

It is about how to manage the process and implement it in a

sustainable manner without having to breach the fiscal

expenditure ceiling," he said."

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"If the president had not acted this year to provide some

funding it would have resulted in further protests," he said.

Since 2015 protests by students demanding free education

rocked campuses across the country, disrupting teaching and

examinations and culminating in a march to Zuma's offices in

Pretoria that saw the president freeze tuition increases. 

Reuters

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