Sunday 15 November 2015 09:30
SABC
The SACP says government should have money to fund free education. (Twitter)
The South African Communist Party (SACP) says if government can bail out an industry, then it should have the money to fund free higher education for the poor.
SACP Second Deputy General Secretary Solly Mapaila says in 2008, the government was able to bail out the automotive industry with almost R40 billion in order to save jobs.
Under the current material conditions existing in this country the rich must pay for their children's education
Mapaila says the country's economy produces sufficient resources to support free higher education for the poor and the unemployed.
He says the rich should fund their children's education.
"Under the current material conditions existing in this country the rich must pay for their children's education. It is a class question. It is not a populist idea that we must just say free education. Why should we pay for children of millionaires and billionaires? "
Mapaila says they will fight what he calls factional manoeuvring by some in the African National Congress to isolate and blame Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande (who is also the General Secretary of the SACP) for the funding problems in the higher education sector.
Mapaila has accused some in the ANC of having backed the student protests against the university fee increases in an attempt to get rid of Nzimande.
He says the protests are now backed by international forces and some opposition parties who want regime change.
Mapaila also says it is unacceptable that other National Executive Committee members get protection while their leader does not.
"Under no uncertain terms will the Communist Party ever accept that Comrade Blade be made a scapegoat of the challenges of our revolution, the failures of our own revolution as an individual as also a process to weaken the Communist Party."