SammyD, The estimates for providing 'free' tertiary education range from 60-70 billion Rand annually. That is an estimate for those currently enrolled. It does not take into account how many students would suddenly swell the ranks if government paid for university fees.
Treasury had to fully deplete our emergency contingency reserve this year just to pay for public sector increases. Government also had to sell its whole stake in Vodacom to bail out Eskom just to keep them afloat. Could you please advise where in the budget you would cut R70 billion from to divert to students? Perhaps from our hospitals and clinics? Our public schools? Our ailing infrastructure budget, which is supposedly set to increase drastically if we implement the NDP.
Even if we cut corruption down to 0% (never going to happen with the ANC), according to the auditor general there was only about R30 billion in 'irregular expenditure' last year. So that only covers about half our estimate.
Also take into account, our economy is growing at 0%, which in real terms factoring in population growth means that we are actually shrinking. So expecting the private sector to cough up R60 billion a year, would mean all that money is further sucked out of the economy, which leads to even more unemployment and less growth and tax income.
Its all very nice that you are militant and angry and demand and demand. But you need to get real. Even if we wanted to, we could not provide free education for students. We are not Norway with 5% unemployment, and some of the highest GDP per capita in the world.
