"Higher Education" - A commodity or a public good?

Is it imaginable having a national state with a privatised Higher Educational system? Are we shifting from a traditional context to a more modern one where paying for education equates that of buying a brand new car? Should this matter be governed or does it benefit South Africa and its citizens? Questions of this kind do rise as we are seeing a current shift in the system of Higher Education in South Africa.

As a higher education scholar, I had sat down reading headlines about Universities in South Africa and the challenges they are imposing on their students. We would remember that Universities are addressed as “Public” educational facilities designed to specifically provide vast knowledge and learning to the societies of South Africa. Little did we note, Universities are now providing education on a ‘new’ level? This week we have seen students of the Witwatersrand protesting for what we believe is an increase of educational fees. This issue was raised by student representatives as we had saw in the news, and newspapers. Students were protesting against what we also believe was a ‘right’ violation.  South Africa is known to be one of the most unequal nations, globally, and instead of fighting against that appalling image, it is shocking that social exclusion is still part of South Africa’s “characteristics”.

A public good has been now overlooked or rather seen as a tradable commodity. If we would define a public good, Economists put it as goods that are non-excludable and non-rivalrous, i.e., such goods cannot be provided exclusively to some: others cannot be excluded from consuming them; secondly, non-rivalrous means their consumption by some does not diminish other people’s consumption levels of the same goods. Simply this means that public goods should be equally distributed in a society, whereas neither members of the public are excluded of; and segregated against. In South Africa, there is vast poverty, mostly tackling Black communities, it is rather challenging for the current; or better yet the next generation to get proper education without being side-lined financially. It is a growing issue, a socioeconomic phenomenon, which its implications are not observed.

Some argue that higher education cannot be treated as a public good as it does not satisfy either of the first two features, viz., non-excludability and non-rivalrousness. Entry into education institutions, it is argued, can be restricted to some, and others can be excluded; and since the places of admission are generally given, admission to or consumption by some necessarily means reduction in the consumption levels of others. Similarly it is argued that there are additional costs in providing access to higher education to additional members of the society. This, in my view, is a very narrow interpretation of the technical attributes of public goods and of consumption of education. At least the additional person may, however, have to incur a small cost of accessing it, say in the form of purchasing a textbook. Not by having to pay up to R100 000 for a year of education with annual increases. 

The public good nature of higher education is well understood when one recognizes the traditional functions of higher education and the social benefits that it produces, many of which constitute public goods in themselves. Higher education a noble system traditionally, it shouldn’t be compromised for profits by ‘fat cats’!, whom are greedy. Lastly, if this matter is silenced and not tackled, we would be looking at having a nation with a lesser number of educated individuals, a nation with more crime and unemployment, after all, Charles Darwin said, its survival of the fittest. The government and its policies should intervene in this matter. 

Trade Unionism

“Black labour unions in South Africa are of great value to policy makers who recognize that the industrial workforce has often served as a catalyst for political progress and social change in the developing world. It was not uncommon for leaders of the independence movements to have come out to organized labour, the trade unions were training grounds and early vehicles of political expression as they are were often the only form of organized activity permitted by colonial authorities.” – (Freeman & Bendahmane 1978, pg 1)

A focal point on African trade unions in the country of South Africa is as intricate as urgent. It is acknowledgeable that such parties do exist in the country and by some means strive to demonstrate their subsistence which dates back to the 1880’s up until today. South African trade unions have a history which takes us back to the 1880’s. Lewis (1984) stated that in common labour, the world over South African trade union movements comprised sectional groupings which were more or less united over time. Despite the sectional groupings, black unions stretched out swiftly as huge amount of people in the working class joined the movements. Estimates available on the Witwatersrand alone, the number of unions rose from twenty with 23 000 members in 1940 to fifty with 80 000 members in 1945 (Stein, 1942). Given that, we understand that not only did trade unions gain growth in the 1970’s but prior to that year; trade unions were emerging at an accelerated rate. Emergence of the independent trade union movement from 1973 to 1984 can broadly be classified in to three eras (Maree, 1987). We understand that according to Johan Maree perspective, trade unions had three epochs which helped them build their way to their independence. This included a struggle whereby unions had to fight for high recognition in their antagonistic surroundings. This was rather not easy, for this reason we would remember that unions were opposed by the government. In the continuation of the struggle for recognition, setbacks were involved whether politically or economically which also came as a challenge for the movements. Maree (1987) stated that, “at the end of this period the survival of the movement was by no means assured due to severe political and economic setbacks received during 1976.”

 “RECAPULATED” - HISTORY OF TRADE UNIONS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

 Trade unions did not come to South Africa as a bolt from the blue consequently because of its existence that came in the early 20th century and even prior to the 1970’s. During the 1920’s a union congress was shaped which was under a management which had orchestrated unity for the working class in the 1930’s. In the continuation of years, trade unions in South Africa tried to preserve the fragile unity with a helping hand from the Trade and Labour Council. Once more we date back to the 1940’s where the Council of Non-European Trade Unions (CNETU) was created as to be of assistance for the black unions. The apartheid government unfortunately was highly authoritative and beuacratic whereby its implementations of racial segregation forced the trade unions and the liberation movement to inhabit together even more to battle apartheid. As a result, the Trade and Labour Council coupled up with the forces of the Council of Non-European Trade Unions to form the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in the mid 1950’s. From its very inception SACTU perceived the struggle against economic exploitation to be inextricably linked to blacks’ political oppression. It therefore committed itself at its first annual conference to the struggle for political emancipation as well as organizing workers into trade unions. It accordingly allied itself to the Congress alliance which included the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Indian Congress, the coloured people’s Congress and the (white) Congress of Democrats (Maree 1985, pg 281). A prominent issue about trade union history was that in South Africa, the white people ethnic group was fortunate. In South African trade union history, white people were privileged to have unions. (ICTUR, et al.,2005) The emerging of these movements was intense whereas numerous unions for various work fields were formed. Despite that a need for a system which was to shield workers did not come patent until sometime in the 19th to the 20th century. During the 1980’s and early 1990’s the South African trade union movement emerged as a model of a militant and progressive movement simultaneously improving the wages and working conditions of its members whilst engaged in successful struggle for democracy against the apartheid government (Buhlungu & Webster, 2004).

“THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHALLENGES FACING SOUTH AFRICAN TRADE UNIONS FROM THE EARLY 1970’S TO THE EARLY 2000’S.”   - SOCIO-ECONOMIC ‘IMPEDIMENTS’ FACED BY TRADE UNIONS IN S.A.

MongeziHadebe@blogspot.com The South African region has one of the highest inequalities. Even those countries with relatively high per capita incomes like South Africa which is characterized by widespread poverty. Statistics about per capita incomes hide the poverty of the majority behind the wealth of a small elite, it is therefore hardly surprising that starvation wages, poverty, inequality and high levels of unemployment are among the key issues that unions in the SADC region have to confront (Jauch, 2003). The South African trade union movement is arguably the strongest in the African continent, due to its role in the ending of apartheid and its continued growth in adverse circumstances. The first trade unions were established by immigrant craft workers who bargained on the basis of skill and then racial exclusivism (Geoffrey Wood et Pauline Dibben 2008). Many labour unions in South Africa have tried to battle for unfettering struggle for their own independence. In simpler terms, unions were advocating in the unshackling of the chains of struggle and promote social change and gain independence as well. But within that criterion, challenges arise which become a burden for the trade union movements. Unemployment rate is one subject matter that challenged union movements (Ebbinghaus, 2002). Referring to a South African context, unemployment was and has been a challenge for union movements in the precedent era and nowadays as well. Considering the fact that unions progress because of the growth of its members, when unemployment is inserted, technically, there will be deficiency in members which makes hard for a union to progress. Unions are more benefited when it comes to the ‘workforce’ that have more stable and out of harm’s way productive jobs.

   Social disruptions The re-awakening of strike activity after the 1973 Durban strikes has reflected a growing confidence by workers in their own capacity (Maree, 1987:55). Devoid of further arguments, a person may generally know trade unions as a pillar for the workers and that if the workers don’t receive or obtain what they demand from their employers, then hell will break loose. This means, workers habitually contact their unions if there is no harmony between them and the employer, whereas the unions do arrangements in trying to get the employers to be on the same mind as their workers. Supplementary to that, if there is still conflict, workers tend to go on ‘strikes’ whereby they picket around their work place demanding what they want and working comes to a halt. Strikes aren’t novel issues troubling ‘modernized’ trade unions, but they were issues even before. Disruptions in the society become intense at times, whereas people start accusing unions of culpability. On the contrary, strikes used to be symbols of the struggle of the independent trade unions which were really pressing forward working class interest at their work-place. Human Resource Management In a unionized work environment, it’s critical that the labour union and human resources management work together to sustain a productive and engaged workforce (Mayhew, 1985). This above mentioned statement is more debatable. The introduction of human resource became a challenge for unions given that unions were more of work place strategizing system which glued to traditional centralized bargaining, in contrast to that, human resource management then brought more mobility of capital, independence for employees. . In contrast to these sector innovations, unions at the workplace level have failed to engage effectively with the new human resource management practices introduced by management (Buhlungu & Webster, 2004). As COSATU argues in its organisational review: ‘one of the critical obstacles facing unions is the absence of a COSATU strategy for workplace change’ (COSATU, 2003:6). Even today, these issues still put a huge challenge for trade unionism economically and socially.

POLITICAL CHALLENGES TRADE UNIONS FACED IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Union involvement in political struggles outside the work-place raises numerous important questions. Under what conditions and in what way should the union take up workers’ problems such as housing, transport and repressive administration? (Maree, 1987:208). Unions had an insertion of political segment in the system which somehow contributed to their growing or development. But these political aspects became under challenge due to delinquency or wrongdoing in the upper level of leadership.   ‘Shady-ness’ Of Trade Union Leaders In the past the power of unions in the workplace derived from a close relationship between leaders, shop stewards and the rank-and-file. But according to union veteran Bobby Marie, today this relationship is being diluted by the emergence of an alternative set of relationships, between union leaders and the new political and Economic elite (Marie, 1995:8). A manifestation of this gap between leadership and the rank and-file are growing  instances of financial mismanagement among the larger unions, such as the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU) and the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (NEHAWU) (Buhlungu & Webster, 2004).