Hon Deputy Chairperson, you know it is so nice to be an opposition in a democratic state because their responsibility and duty is to oppose and reject everything that the ANC has to offer as
the solution to masses of our people in general. Let me greet the people of South Africa in general and hon members of the House. The ANC appreciates the injustices of the past and seeks to redress them through education. We believe that it is only free education and training where we can advance and develop as a society into greater heights.
Free education should no longer be rhetoric and must be rolled out through all the universities and NFSAS should be more effective and accessible to all the students. We welcome the progressive move by the department to set aside R150 million for TVET colleges to prepare students for industry requirements and drafting of the gender-based violence in institutions of higher learning. We appeal to the department to quickly finalise the drafting.
We are still making a plea to the department to increase capacity of universities and be billed for students to access higher education equally. The government should build and own student villages to prevent harassment that students face from the landlords that equally happens when the expropriation of land without compensation happens in South Africa. This is because you cannot build anything on heaven but a land to build student villages.
The Department of Higher Education and Training must be at the centre of development of society. All types of professionals that universities and TVET colleges must be able to resolve the challenges of today. The education attained at the institutions of higher learning must prepare the students for conditions of our people and therefore provide the solutions to them.
Hon Chairperson this is no doubt that the ANC-led government is committed to uplift our people through higher education and training and this is noticed by when our government prioritise education as a fundamental force of change for development of society. Indeed education should not be a commodity. The ANC supports this vote because it directly addresses the needs and aspirations of poor students and gives access to higher education and training for them to self development and self determination as a country. Thank you very much Deputy Chairperson.