When the story of education in 2024 goes down, the Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act will dominate.

However, what must not be forgotten is the ineptitude and mismanagement of the higher education terrain that will be glossed over in the airy-fairy mind of former Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Blade Nzimande.

Nzimande will vainly suggest that poverty and inequality have been adequately addressed through his failed patronage politics within the higher education system.

Yet Nzimande has never accounted for the many underlying challenges in higher education. South Africa glosses over the thousands of unemployed graduates and the high failure rate within universities and Technical and Vocational Educational Training colleges.

Worse, the ongoing corruption in all spheres of the tertiary sector that has gone unpunished under Nzimande’s watch, especially the mess left behind at the National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), the rotten National Skills Fund, and some of the Sector Education Training Authorities, which have put greed before skills, is disgraceful.

His inaction should not be forgotten. If one tracks the SETA landscape from 2009 until now, Nzimande removed competent SETA Boards and CEOs and deployed his chosen merry band of SA Communist Party cadres who lacked the most basic sectoral knowledge, let alone good governance attributes. At one point – every Seta Board was headed by an obscure communist deployed at the Board Chair and CEO level. This was to allow the SACP to have a self-enrichment feeding scheme. Perhaps that is why it can finally afford to contest elections rather than remain an ANC Gucci handbag.

Nzimande was given a soft landing following his demotion to Science, Technology, and Innovation, where the budget was less, and his ability to influence the appointments of his cronies lessened.

Still, watching him on social media pretend to be impactful while travelling China and the African continent and blowing hot air is a joke. Like in The Emperor’s New Clothes, Nzimande seems oblivious to the noise around his poor tenure. And the lackeys surrounding him keep reassuring him that he is wonderfully clothed.

This ineptitude goes to the top because the country’s top crime buster, Shamilla Batohi, has not succeeded in dealing with the litany of complaints lodged with the NPA. In South Africa, the corrupt escape without punishment. Woeful Batohi is another failure.

In any society where values and morals trump deceitful corruption, the mere hint of a scandal should result in someone standing down until their name is cleared. South Africa’s Cabinet has previously been described as a gallery of rogues, starting with the President, whom the lawmakers find nothing wrong with stashing foreign currency under his mattress.

When Ramaphosa’s appointees – allegedly – misbehave – nothing happens. They deny and do nothing, like their master.

Nzimande threw his toys out of the cot in January 2024 when the anti-corruption advocacy body, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), released voice recordings allegedly implicating Nzimande and the former NSFAS board Chair Ernest Khosa in graft, revealing how service providers reportedly paid millions of rands to Nzimande and Khosa in kickbacks for tenders.

But NSFAS and Nzimande have dismissed the claims, criticised Outa’s investigative techniques, and threatened court action.

NSFAS and Nzimande’s empty threats amounted to bluster. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Looking back at the state of higher education in 2024, the analysis will show that billions from the state coffers are funnelled into tertiary education.

Yet, the failure rate and the high number of unemployed graduates remain high despite this. As a former business leader, Ramaphosa should be more cautious about spending taxpayers' money.

It seems that he does not care. Why does a government putting billions into education not ask why so many drop out or fail or those who graduate cannot find jobs? This amounts to a crisis.

Aside from NSFAS, Nzimande did nothing about the complaints regarding Sector Education Training Authorities in the media for various wrongdoings. When hundreds of students who have completed learnerships for critical skills in the insurance sector complained that they were denied their accreditation certificates from the Insurance Sector Education and Training Authority (Inseta), nothing was done.

It does not get any better for the nation’s learners when it comes to schooling, with the deeply contested along racial grounds BELA Act, which makes grade R, grades 10 to 12, and homeschooling compulsory, a political football.

The most debated and controversial parts of the BELA Act are the disputed Clauses 4 and 5. The law aims to improve early childhood education and ensure students finish school. It also standardises admissions, language policies, discipline, and homes-chooling rules to address school system inequalities.

But Afriforum, the Democratic Alliance, and Freedom Front Plus are opposed to levelling the playing fields for all South Africans. They want to protect their turf as under apartheid.

They are concerned that the new powers granted to provincial education officials could be used to force single-language schools, particularly Afrikaans-medium schools, to change their language policies. They fear schools may be pressured to adopt dual-medium education, which could dilute mother-tongue instruction and increase running costs.

Thirty years after democracy, South Africa’s learners are no closer to benefiting from a system that decently equips them for the 21st century. The BELA Act must come into being to transform the schooling system that is mired with problems.

Despite the National School Nutrition Programme to address hunger, malnutrition and micro-nutrient deficiencies, in the past year, the Department of Basic Education confirmed 23 deaths of children at schools through food poisoning incidents.

Since the beginning of September 2024, 890 reported incidents of food-borne illnesses across all provinces have been reported. Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have been the most affected, with Limpopo, Free State and Mpumalanga recording dozens of incidents.

Early in her tenure, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube pledged to eradicate pit latrine toilets. In 2013, they were banned from schools and meant to be removed and replaced by 2016.

Eight years later, all targets were missed, and an estimated 3 900 pit latrine toilets remain. Empty promises are of no consolation to parents whose children have perished in pit latrines throughout the country.

Like Nzimande, who allowed corruption to fester under his watch, has anyone been held accountable for this failure? The Department says they will be eradicated by 2025. Promises! Promises!

The new Minister of Higher Education and Training, Dr Nobuhle Nkabane, under whose watch the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) has already activated its War Room for the 2025 academic year to monitor and tackle potential challenges, wants a trouble-free start. Her Deputy Minister of Higher Education and Training, Buti Manamela, is leading the way, assuring that the Department is on track with its planning for the new academic year. The DHET’s University Education Branch will visit universities to observe how campus registration processes unfold.

This is not about glory-seeking public relations and bluster a la Blade Nzimande; it’s leadership. Let’s hope for a better 2025 with leadership based on integrity and action.

**Edwin Naidu writes a blog for Higher Education Media.

***The views expressed here do not necessarily represent those of Independent Media or IOL

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