Johnathan Paoli
In a community report back process on Monday, Secretary-General Fikile Mbulula raised attention to the corrupt status of Nsfas and called on the Minister of Higher Education and Technology Blade Nzimande to correct the status quo.
Mbalula was addressing the Hammanskraal community at the Mandela Stadium in Tshwane as part of the ANC’s Manifesto Review report back process.
Mbalula said the ANC-led government has allocated money for the scheme and that minister Nzimande has to fix the mechanism of allocating these funds.
The SG said that education in South Africa is fully subsidised, and that the ruling party has continued to reform the country’s social security net.
He said that it remains very easy for opposition parties to oppose, promise and mislead people about things that they can never deliver, and called on communities to solve crime and the related problems together.
“The crime that is happening in our communities needs everyone’s intervention, including community members,” Mbalula said.
Mbalula’s public outburst is not the first where he called out and demanded action on the ANC’s top leaders in the government perceived not to be delivering on their mandate.
In his address at the opening of the party’s Women’s League conference earlier this year, Mbalula warned Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan to “move fast or we will move you” in relation to challenges faced by Prasa, Eskom and Transnet.
Mbalula’s public stance could be seen as a reflection of an increasing decline in confidence for the ruling party, with ANC-alligned Sasco said to be losing support across the country’s universities.
This assertion comes in the wake of the EFF Student Command (EFFSC) winning the majority of seats on the Wits University students’ representative council (SRC), occupying eight seats out of the 13 contested.
While at the University of the Free State (UFS), the EFFSC claimed an overwhelming victory during the SRC election at the Bloemfontein campus.
The EFFSC won all eight seats in the SRC elections at the University of Pretoria, the first time that the EFFSC has secured a clean sweep victory at UP, making it the dominant student political organisation on campus.
However, all eight members were disqualified following an application by Afriforum which alleged that the students breached some electoral laws and accused the student organisation as a racist and a violent movement.
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