A delegation of the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) led by the Secretary General of the ANC, together with the Alliance structures met the component members of the Progressive Youth Alliance (PYA) being ANCYL, SASCO, YCL and COSAS in Johannesburg today. The meeting received a report from the PYA on the student protests against increments in university fess.

The meeting acknowledged and commended students for running a predominantly peaceful protest campaign nationally that brought to the fore the critical challenges facing education, particularly in the context of fees that excludes many students from tertiary education.

The meeting agreed to urgently raise the following matters with government for consideration and implementation. These issues are the demand for a 0% increase in university fees, the scrapping of registration fees, long term solution to realise free education, a review of the autonomy of universities and the capping of earnings of academics.

The agreement reached by the meeting will form part of a presentation and recommendations to be tabled to the President of the Republic of South Africa, Comrade Jacob Zuma, ahead of his meeting with student representatives tomorrow.

In principle the meeting endorsed the concerns and demands of the students that ANC resolutions on education be pursued with renewed determination, that the private sector be factored in addressing the challenges of education and that the matter of autonomy of universities be reviewed.

The ANC agreed that students should ensure that as the campaign continues it should do so with maximum discipline.

On the issue of the memorandum delivered by students to the ANC today, the ANC commends the students for having conducted themselves in a disciplined manner. The issues raised in the memorandum will be considered and be factored in our continued engagement with students, government and institutions of higher learning.

 

Issued by ANC