Fee-Free Education Frees All

The most glaring issue in higher education in recent years has been fee-free education and how to accomplish it without putting the country into debt

- Chester Makana

As someone who was forced to start his primary school at the age of five, slightly below the average age, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Limpopo (UL), Professor Mahlo Mokgalong, understands the value of flexibility that helps him avoid approaching higher education with parochialism. This childhood experience remains one of his guiding principles that adds empathy and thoughtfulness to his management style.

Struggle credentials

Mokgalong enrolled for a degree in Zoology and Botany in 1972, the year often referred to as turbulent in the history of the then University of the North. At the time, the education system was segregated and unequal. As one historian recounted, “While white schooling was free, compulsory and expanding, black education was sorely neglected. Underfunding and an urban influx led to gravely insufficient schooling facilities, teachers and educational materials as well as an increase in student absenteeism or non-enrollment.”

“Since joining the University, I noticed its involvement in the overall struggle or fight for social justice. The University of Limpopo [then University of the North] was at the forefront of the fight against injustice,” says Mokgalong.

In 1972, the University became one of the breeding grounds for the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) championed by the likes of Onkgopotse Tiro, who was the National President of the South African Student Organisation (SASO). The defunct student body was officially launched in 1969 at the same University.

“They were powerful and instrumental in conscientising the young mind at black institutions about the philosophy of black consciousness which made me more conscious of the sporadic struggle against lack of access to education for natives.”