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Analysts question sustainability of fee-free higher education

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Analysts say government’s commitment to fund fee-free higher education through the new tax proposals and spending reduction is a positive move, but may not be sustainable as the costs may exceed their projections.

Economics Lecture at the University of Johannesburg, Sean Muller says the initial R12 billion injection is encouraging, but government may be off the mark with the full cost of fee-free education.

“National Treasury suggests a cost of about R12, 500 billion in 2018, rising to about R24 billion in 2020. From my analysis, that seems very optimistic and what’s interesting is that National Treasury still say the expected cost of this policy is uncertain. When we spoke to Treasury officials in the budget lock-up, they indicated that a full costing of the proposal still hasn’t been done.”

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