South Africa’s fee-free higher education initiative, controversially introduced by President Jacob Zuma in the dying weeks of 2017, will plunge the country into a deeper financial crisis if it isn’t adjusted one way or another.
Days after Zuma made his surprise announcement, Ramaphosa was elected president of South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress. He is set to become the country’s president when Zuma’s term expires if the ANC wins the country’s 2019 national elections.
It’s now for Zuma’s successor Ramaphosa to do the tricky tampering. He will need to be politically and financially adept to manage this situation. He can’t simply reverse a populist decision and he clearly won’t be able to meet it fully without serious adjustments to the country’s finances.
Zuma’s plan seeks to provide fee-free tertiary education to students from households with a combined annual income of less than R350,000 with immediate effect. Estimations suggest that this covers 90% of students in the higher education system.