Nobuhle Nkabane stands firm against opposition criticism of higher education budget
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Higher Education Minister Nobuhle Nkabane on Thursday said she would not dignify the attacks levelled against her when the DA and some opposition parties rejected her department's budget.
Nkabane presented her department's budget for the 2025/26 financial year in the National Assembly two days after doing so in the National Council of Provinces, where the DA, MK Party, and the EFF rejected it.
The department has been allocated R142.4 billion and is set to increase at an average annual rate of 4.4% to R150 billion in the next financial year and R158 billion in 2027/28.
'This growth is not sufficient to meet growing demands for additional resources,' she said.
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The Technical and Vocational Education and Training colleges have been allocated R14 billion, and both the Sector Education and Training Authorities and the National Skills Fund have a combined R26 billion.
The National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS) is allocated R48.7 billion, and its allocation will increase to R51 billion next year and R53.4 billion in 2027.
Nkabane said the allocation was not sufficient to meet the growing demand for access to higher education.
'We continue to seek efficient ways of allocating limited resources to ensure that no deserving learner is left behind.'
She also said NSFAS remained committed to implementing a comprehensive student funding model for higher education to address the needs of the 'missing middle'.
'The National Skills Fund has set aside R3 billion over a three-year period.'
Nkabane said the allocation for university education increased from R91.7 billion to R96 billion, with a R1.4 billion deficit on the universities' budget.
'We continue to work with National Treasury to find a sustainable adjustment to the universities' budget,' she said.
Tebogo Letsie, ANC MP and chairperson of the Higher Education Portfolio Committee, said they would ensure that the department, NSFAS, and universities were accountable.
'We will ensure public resources are used efficiently, effectively, and transparently to deliver the ANC vision,' he said.
Letsie took a swipe at the DA for its stance to reject the department's budget because they don't believe Nkabane should be the minister.
'When you vote in 2026, remember them, they will be saying your poor child must not go to school and university because they have a problem with the minister,' he added.
MK Party MP Mnqobi Msezane said they rejected the budget because they don't have confidence in the Ministry and Director-General Nkosinathi Sishi, who they claimed faced allegations of gross misconduct, fraud, and corruption, and was not suspended or investigated by Nkabane.
'We don't have confidence in the Ministry and the department to oversee this budget,' Msezane said.
DA MP Matlhodi Maseko said the higher education system was being systematically eroded by incompetence, deception, and the unchecked abuse of power in the system.
'The minister has repeatedly given conflicting representations to this House,' she said in reference to the SETA boards' chairperson appointment scandal and listed other challenges in the department under Nkabane's watch.
Maseko said President Cyril Ramaphosa should remove Nkabane without delay.
'The future of our youth depends on strong, ethical, caring leadership, and until there is accountability at the very top, every rand in this budget will be another drop in a leaking bucket,' she said.
EFF's Sihle Lonzi accused the DA of cherry picking which budget to support and also criticised it for discovering corruption in the department after former deputy minister Andrew Whitfield was fired from the executive.
However, Lonzi said his party would not support the budget after presenting a seven-point plan to rescue the department.
'We have no certainty that the R142 billion is going to be used correctly,' he said.
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We have about 19-million people on SASSA and an additional 9-million people receiving the R350 grant every single month. NSFAS only deals with an odd one-million students, why is there no efficient payment system that will pay students, institutions and accommodation directly?' He added that the minister ought to blacklist corrupt board members. 'You must clean up the SETAs. You must blacklist corrupt board members and CEOs, not this thing you are doing now where when someone is suspended in one SETA, you take them [into] another SETA,' he said. DA MP Karabo Khakhau who led the charge against Nkabane said she was not surprised by Nkabane's actions, saying that it is a result of the culture of the political party that has deployed her. 'To them, corruption is their daily bread. Living in a corruption-free South Africa is a threat against the very core of their existence. Unlike the other political parties who have today pledged their support to this budget under Nkabane, the DA has not forgotten about the people of this country. 'Our loyalty remains to nothing but the people. South Africa can count on the DA to fight for them and for justice against corruption. The real enemy of progress against young people is Nkabane - it is the ANC for protecting her and corruption, it is President Ramaphosa for refusing to fire her, it is the political parties that think R142bn is safe in the hands of Dr Nkabane.' She told Nkabane that she should voluntarily vacate office if she feels strongly about serving the young people of this country. 'Committing fraud under statutory offence under section 26 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act is not only spitting on the graves of the forefathers of this democracy, but it is spitting in the faces if the young people whom you've failed to lead. It is a spit in the face of your DHET staff that you have sacrificed at the altar of your own protection. 'You said that you are dedicating this budget to the memory of the fallen heroes and heroines of the PSET sector. So I dare you, do the right thing in honour of them and resign! Detox the department of the toxicity of your poor leadership, arrogance, effective allergy to honesty and commitment to no-one but yourself. You don't need to wait for President Ramaphosa to fire you, if you mean it that you are a servant of the leadership of the people, serve and be honest and resign.' Build One South Africa's Mmusi Maimane argued that the sector had bigger problems, adding that the starting point was to clear the air around Nkabane's alleged wrongdoing. 'On leadership, we can debate whether this is the right minister or not the right minister. The issue of whether the minister misled parliament needs to be brought to a parliamentary committee and an investigation must be sought so we can get to the bottom of this. It's not a violation of anyone's feelings, it's about a constitutional obligation which must be followed.' He added that the bigger picture is to understand that the ambition of freedom could not be delinked to the sector overseen by Nkabane. 'You cannot delink the ambition of freedom from the ambition of higher education. We focused on the intrinsic nature of education but we've never linked it to our economic outputs. When we derive a plan for what South Africa needs to look like in the future, we become clear about the kind of graduates that we want to produce. 'This department progressively oversees the number of black students declining who go into higher education, but students who are Asian and Indian are increasing. It tells you that our empowerment story has been delinked from higher education.' He urged the ministry to prioritise access to higher education to fully commit to the transformation of the country. 'From a capacity point of view, it's clear that infrastructure build in higher education is poor. We are talking about a shortage of 500,000 beds in this country. If we are going to see the doors of learning open, as is the ambition, we need to fund the capacity thereof. 'It's now common cause that NSFAS is not an efficient institution for managing how many students we want to get in. It's either we reform NSFAS or we shut out the middle man.' Rise Mzansi's Makashule Gana told the committee that he refuses to take part in the scandal and spectacle that has brought attention to the ministry. 'Education, especially higher education, is not a luxury, it is a path out of poverty and is the foundation of a prosperous nation. The department's R142bn budget is substantial but not enough, because our crisis is not just funding — its spatial, access, and a system that is failing the poor. "Nowhere is that failure more glaring than in NSFAS. I'm a product of it, many of us are, but what we see today is heartbreaking because hyenas and tenderpreneurs are circling what should be a lifeline for our students. That R95bn for NSFAS has to go to students, not middlemen.' Despite the minister conceding that there is a R1.4bn deficit in the universities' budget, she vowed that the NSFAS budget would 'not be sufficient to meet the growing demand for access to higher education". NSFAS funding sits at R48.7bn this year, with further increases planned in the coming years. Nkabane's budget covered key higher education sectors, detailing that TVET colleges are to receive R14bn, up from R13.1bn last year. The combined allocation for Sector Education and Training Authorities and the National Skills Fund is R26bn. Meanwhile, university education rises from R91.7bn in 2024 to R96bn this year alone.
