South African to fund free university education says financial minister
South Africa to offer free university education to students from poor households.
In a statement by President Jacob Zuma last month, he said “the government would financially support the tuition without giving details of how it would funded”. The statement shaked the financial market and critics said it was a populist promise that risked increasing an already gaping budget deficit.
Gigaba said “the president Zuma is an awkward position as regards to financial implications and that the plan would be implemented over eight years”
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.