A notice of intention to introduce a private member's bill, the Student Debt Relief Bill, has been gazetted.
The bill seeks to assist thousands students from various higher education institutions who owe fees to be able to obtain their qualifications, said EFF MP Sihle Lonzi.
There's also the invitation for comment on the draft bill.
Lonzi said the bill also intends to address the plight of students in respect of their debt to institutions of higher learning by establishing a Student Debt Relief Fund.
In the notice, Lozi cites an article by Lea Leathern which was published on the University of Cape Town website on May 6 2024, which said 500,000 students in SA had debt in respect of the fees they owe to an institution of higher learning and most of them will not graduate or receive certificates or a letter of completion until they’re fully paid-up.
“Young people in South Africa are faced with two undesirable scenarios: to begin their work lives with huge sums of debt that imprison them in a permanent cycle of debt for the rest of their lives, or to remain jobless and economically inactive, as their qualifications are withheld by institutions of higher learning because of their debt. The need to address student debt is both necessary and urgent,” reads the notice gazetted on February 28.
Young people in South Africa are faced with two undesirable scenarios: to begin their work lives with huge sums of debt that imprison them in a permanent cycle of debt for the rest of their lives, or to remain jobless and economically inactive, as their qualifications are withheld by institutions of higher learning because of their debt
— notice gazetted on February 28.
“In terms of the draft bill, any student may, based on a set criterion, apply to the und for the fund to pay off their debt to an institution of higher learning to enable a student to graduate or get his or her qualification.”
Some students who owe institutions of higher learning, some hundreds of thousands, have not been able to access their qualifications, leaving them trapped and unable to apply for job opportunities.
Debt owed to institutions runs to hundreds of millions of rand.
The draft bill will make provision for all students who have met their academic requirements to receive their qualifications irrespective of their debt to the institution of higher learning.
One of the affected students, Bongani Khumalo, who studied at the Tshwane University of Technology, said the bill would assist him. “I can't access my qualification and can't get employed to the job that I might have studied for.
“It also causes stress to parents because having to know that their child will graduate but not come back with that qualification, it's another disappointment, even a stress to them because now imagine going to graduation ceremony, coming back empty-handed, imagine that pain.
“So, I think it will help a lot even with the admission of students who can't go to tertiary institutions because of financial challenges.”
Interested parties and institutions are invited to make written representations on the proposed content of the draft bill to the Speaker of the National Assembly within 30 days of the publication of the notice.
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