*Caption: IFP Youth Brigade leader Mkhuleko Hlengwa,while campaigning during prior elections. (Picture courtesy of Twitter)

Written by: Menelisi Ndwandwe

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Youth Brigade has commended President Jacob Zuma to allow citizens to have a voice on the question of free education.

IFP Youth Brigade held a joint briefing with its student wing, South African Democratic Students Movement (SADESMO) on Thursday about the ongoing student fees campaign in the country.

National Chairperson of the youth brigade, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, linked the current students unrest with the Soweto uprisings.

“40 years of the same shades of brutality and uncertainty confront the youth and students of South Africa,” said Hlengwa.

“The country is in crisis, the country is burning. At the outset we want to strongly condemn the violence and destruction of property which has become a defining feature of the #Feesmustfall movement,” he added.

Hlengwa said the Inkatha wing believes that transformation in the higher education sector is needed.

“Change in higher education is necessary for nation building, social cohesion and for strengthening our democratic discourse on the principles inclusivity and access,” he said

Nonkulueko Nkwanyana, the National Executive Council Member of SADESMO, said they support the #Feesmustfall movement and it must not be hijacked.

“This is the student struggle and students must not politicises it. The unity within student is key, the outsiders must not be allowed to be part of it,” said Nkwanyana.

Hlengwa called the Executive and Legislature to account on this student crisis.

“We are calling on President Zuma to in terms of Section 84(2)(g) of the Constitution to call a national referendum on the question of free education,” Hlengwa said.

“If indeed he is the People’s President, he must listen to the citizens,” he added.

Meanwhile in the unprecedented move, Secretary-General of the African National Congress, Gwede Mantashe, was mocked on social media yesterday after he said if he was the Minister of Education he was going to shutdown tertiary institutions for six months.

Minister of Higher Education, Dr Blade Nzimade sheltered Mantashe’s comments by alluding that the Chief of Luthuli House was representing the cries of many parents in the country that are not happy about the #FeesMustFall movement.