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Johannesburg - The inter-governmental task team on education funding will offer a guide on a sustainable funding model for higher education, Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene said on Friday.
Commenting on the recent university protests, which have left government scrambling for the source of an expected R2.7bn shortfall in education funding after President Jacob Zuma last week announced that fees will not increase next year, Nene said the task team dealing with the matter would guide government.
He said said government has, for a while now, focused on education as a priority and added that finding a solution to the problem would require contribution of different players including the universities and the tax-paying public.
Nene was speaking at a breakfast briefing on last week's mini budget.
He also spoke briefly about the problems experienced in some of the country's state-owned enterprises. The cash-strapped South African Post Office, for instance, has struggled to pay the full salaries of its staff this month. He said it was strange that he found out through the media that the Post Office was experiencing cash flow problems. However, government is dealing with the matter.
Commenting on "wealth tax", business analyst Clive Ramathibela Smith said the state should not tax the "rainmakers". Instead, he proposed a tax on luxury goods. South African Revenue Service commissioner Tom Moyane said out of approximately 18 million taxpayers, seven million were responsible for the bulk of the tax.
