Thank you, House Chairperson. Deputy President, Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande, and your colleagues in the Cabinet, hon members, senior management from the department, and CEOs of the Setas and other entities accountable to our department, this debate takes place on the day on which the final Constitution that heralded our democracy was adopted by the Constitutional Assembly 17 years ago.
It is very important for me to raise this point for the following reasons. Last year the portfolio committee processed three pieces of legislation, including the Higher Education and Training Laws Amendment Bill. This piece of legislation ignited serious debate amongst some academics. I don't know whether that includes those who could have been awarded professorial status on the basis of getting chairs organised for auditoria in our institutions!
I would like to use this time to clarify the point that this House adopted legislation that empowered the Minister to appoint an independent assessor if in an institution there were serious allegations that related to financial impropriety, mismanagement and other unlawful practices in the university. He would be able to undertake investigation into these.
Our experience has been that in some institutions, particularly where the Minister appointed assessors, the investigators did not receive the necessary support and co-operation from the administration in order for them to be able to conduct investigations and bring recommendations for the resolution of the problems that had emanated from these institutions. Now we have intervened by way of legislation to empower the Minister to appoint an independent assessor who will be able to summons witnesses and enter into premises where evidence is alleged to be situated for the purpose of investigation.
The other power that was given to the Minister in terms of this piece of legislation was that the Minister would be able to cause the university council to undertake investigations and take action against people who were alleged to have been involved in illegal acts.
There is a serious concern that has been raised. We understand that there are some people who are galvanising university councils around the country to register a protest against this Bill, on the basis that this Act is unlawful and unconstitutional. The basis for the argument is that when there are allegations of corruption in a university, it must be left to the whim of the university council to undertake investigation. If nothing happens or gets done, we will then believe that institutional autonomy will somehow resolve our issues!
We would like to indicate that the Constitution we celebrate today enshrines only academic freedom and scientific research as fundamental constitutional rights. It does not provide for the aspect of institutional autonomy. The issue that is being raised, of institutional autonomy, finds its expression in the Higher Education Act and people cannot utilise this notion to repel our efforts to exact transformation in our universities that have been historical enclaves of the privileged classes and strata.
We would like to indicate that as a portfolio committee we have a responsibility to exact oversight in all our universities, public further education and training, FET, colleges and Setas, to ensure that there is public accountability for the finances that are being appropriated today.
We would like to applaud the efforts of Stellenbosch University to integrate residences in the university, including expanding the entry of African students into their institution.
We would like other institutions, such as the North-West University, to emulate this good example. On our last visit as a portfolio committee to North-West University, specifically to the Potchefstroom campus, we realised that 95% of the students on that campus are lily-white. Black students are found only at the Vaal and Mahikeng campuses. It is our view that the sort of programmes that are being offered at the African campuses are of comparatively lower quality than those that are being offered at the Potchefstroom campus.
Whilst we were experiencing that sad reality, the chairperson of the Institutional Forum in that institution strangely remarked that their institution boasted 38 years of remarkable and progressive transformation. We are surprised that a leader of the Institutional Forum would have the audacity to make such a claim, when 63% of the staff complement in the institution are white, and the student leadership on that campus are being victimised on the basis of their holding views that are not congruent with those of the leadership at the institution. We think these sorts of matters have got to be raised in such a debate so that we can highlight the challenges that relate to transformation in higher education, which all of us as a society must be seized with in order to resolve them.
We commend the Minister for having raised the issue of "sex for a cause" in our universities. The people who say we must not investigate practices of this nature in our institutions suggest that when there are such practices we should twiddle our thumbs helplessly, without the ability to intervene and ensure that there is order in the institutions.
At the Polokwane 52nd National Conference we as the ANC adopted the resolution that we should strive to achieve free education. The first president of SA Students Congress, Sasco, Robinson Ramaite, in his speech delivered 20 years ago in Norway, approvingly quoted the profound, seminal assertion of Amlcar Cabral, which reads as follows: Always bear in mind that the people are not fighting for ideas, for the things in anyone's head. They are fighting to win material benefits, to live better and in peace, to see their lives go forward, to guarantee the future of their children.
In this connection, our government has seen 400 000 FET students being enrolled and studying in our institutions free of charge. We have also witnessed successful final-year university students having their loans converted into full-year cost of study. We have seen the allocation of a loan scheme that has ensured that graduates are able to receive their results, certificates and academic transcripts from their universities.
These are solid steps that give practical expression to our commitment to the progressive realisation of free education. I know that Sasco expressed concern with regard to the concept of fee-free education. The reality of the situation is that free education comes at a cost. The billions that the Minister talked about are going to be pumped into our various universities in order for them to be able to pay the staff, and expand infrastructure so that we can provide education to our people. It also gives us the responsibility to replenish these resources for future generations. That is going to be the responsibility of all of us who go through the education system.
It is notable that there are improvements of 12% in the student headcount enrolment in our universities, and 24% in such enrolment in our FET colleges and research master's graduates in various institutions. We would like to indicate in this regard that what belies these improvements is that the high band of graduate outputs is impregnated with students coming from rich families. A lot of our students from poor backgrounds are not able to pursue studies beyond undergraduate programmes because of family pressure to seek jobs, and they do not proceed to higher levels to optimise our efforts to ensure a high skills base that will respond to the global economy.
We would like to indicate, Minister, that the construction of the two universities in Mpumalanga and the Northern Cape are against the wishes of a certain Mr Van Coller, cited in Mouton, Louw and Strydom and arguing that South Africa does not need more tertiary institutions, and also stating that there is a decline in the quality of school education and graduate unemployment, and poor research output. We would like to say that these critics want to continue entrenching the unequal distribution of educational facilities, which perpetuates inequalities inherited by the democratic government.