It came as a bolt out of the blue, surprising economists and those who’ve grown to expect only fiscal lunacy from government. On Monday Blade Nzimande, the higher education minister and leader of the SA Communist Party, did the necessary and difficult thing: he announced that universities will be allowed to hike their 2017 fees by up to 8%, following a fee freeze this year.It was so unexpected, mainly because it’s especially rare for politicians (outside treasury, at any rate) to make the right financial call. This is especially so when it’s a decision that Nzimande knows will be deeply unpopular. Yet he drew a line in the sand, telling students that they can protest all they want, SA will only do what it can afford.It also comes in the wake of the ANC having said, after its hammering in the local elections, that "the principle of no-fee increase in universities should remain in place".Yet Nzimande, the 58-year-old political veteran with a PhD in sociology and a master’s in industri...
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