Sekela Somlomo, engathi kuyacaca impela ukuthi i-Cope iyasondelela lapha ku-DA - iyogcina igwinyiwe ngendlela engibona izinto zihamba ngayo. [Madam Deputy Speaker, it really looks as if Cope is getting closer to the DA - and the way I see things unfolding, it will end up being absorbed by it.]
Hon Deputy Speaker, Cabinet colleagues, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education and Training, members of the committee, hon members, the success of building an integrated, responsive, differentiated, but highly articulated postschool education and training system depends largely, though not exclusively, on effective and good governance across all its institutions. To this end, good and clean governance is a critical component of a healthy higher education sector. At the heart of this is also the necessity to fight corruption wherever it occurs and to create a system where corrupt activities are prevented or, at the very least, detected before they occur.
Experience has shown that where good and effective governance is lacking, learning and teaching at our universities often suffer. I have heard of many cases where allegations have been made about some university council members, managers, union leaders and student representatives gaining, through somewhat questionable and corrupt practices, access to public resources for higher education. Government provides significant funding towards higher education and we must demand that these funds are well invested for the benefit of the academic enterprise.
Poor families sacrifice greatly to ensure that their children obtain the best quality education, and we should therefore not allow corruption to fail them. Managers must manage, lecturers must teach and research and our students must be given the best opportunity to learn.
Another related matter, not incorporated into this Bill but important to raise, is that at some universities student representatives have demanded and secured representation on university tender committees. This is unacceptable, as it has the potential to corrupt student politics and student leaders. Students go to university to study and not to be involved in decisions about tenders. We want students to come out, at the very least, as entrepreneurs and not tenderpreneurs.
I intend introducing the necessary legislative amendments next year and I call upon all student formations in the meantime to actively dissuade their student representative council leaders from being part of tender committees. [Applause.]
This Bill therefore seeks to implement some of the resolutions adopted by participants at the stakeholder summit on higher education in April 2010, committing the sector to the principles of good governance and public accountability
The Bill aims to regulate the conduct of members of the council, staff and students at universities, in relation to their supply chain management processes. In short, this means that if you are a council member sitting on a university council, you cannot afford to have a company that you either own or are a director of benefiting from those tenders without open and upfront declaration of your possible conflict of interest.
The Bill also aims to adjust the period within which an independent assessor for universities, where there are problems or matters to be investigated, as appointed by the Minister, must finalise an investigation.
Furthermore, the Bill introduces some changes in terms of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, NSFAS. It deals with improving the governance, management and functionality of the NSFAS. It aims, among other matters, to amend the National Student Financial Aid Scheme Act, Act 56 of 1999 and to empower the Minister to intervene in the case of poor or non performance or maladministration by the board, as well as setting out the procedures for dissolution of the board.
It further provides for the appointment of an administrator temporarily to take over the management, governance and administration of the board and repeals the provisions placing an obligation on the employer of a borrower to make deductions from the remuneration of the borrower.
This latter point, in the main, came from the recommendations from a report of the ministerial committee on the review of the NSFAS. That is why we welcome and agree with the recommendation of the portfolio committee that this section, which forces the employer to deduct money from an employee who owes NSFAS, without his or her consent, is unconstitutional. In so doing we are not creating a situation where those who have to pay back money to the NSFAS do not pay. That is why the department has already started work to introduce a constitutionally compliant section of the NSFAS Act to enable the NSFAS to recover loan payments directly through the taxation system, working together with Sars.
Let me take this opportunity to thank the chairperson of the portfolio committee, Adv Malale, and all members of the committee for the work they have done in piloting this piece of legislation and for the public hearings they held. Let me also again thank the director general, Mr Qonde, and senior management in my department for all the work that they have done and also for assisting the portfolio committee.
Ngiyafisa ke sengiphetha ukuyigcizelela lento Sekela Somlomo nawe bab' uMpontshane, hhayi bakithi izingane zethu ake ziphume ekutheni esikhundleni sokuthi zifunde izincwadi ziyofunda izinto ezingalungile ngokuthatha izinqumo ukuthi ithenda ethize kufanele iye kubani. Yiyo lento edala izinkinga ezingaka kwezinye izikhungo zethu. Ngiyabonga kakhulu Sekela Somlomo. (Translation of isiZulu paragraph follows.)
[In conclusion, I want to emphasise this issue, Madam Deputy Speaker and hon Mpontshane: No, good people, our children should concentrate on studying rather than on learning inappropriate things such as taking decisions about which tender should be awarded to whom. This is the issue that causes problems at some of our institutions. Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker.]