Julius Malema descended on the University of Cape Town yesterday and promised free university education. Nothing new or strange.

Julius Malema descended on the University of Cape Town yesterday and promised free university education. Nothing new or strange.

The idea is likely to be rejected solely on the basis that it was raised by the ANC's maddest young man. Some might even raise the matter of his not having tertiary education to dismiss his promise.

Some could rightly say that we are struggling to teach our children the basics of arithmetic, reading and writing. But that would be to throw the baby out with the bath water.

We all want free education up to tertiary level for all. It might be the greatest common good we could bequeath future generations and might well be the measure of our political success.

We also want to be free of hunger, and to provide every citizen with decent healthcare, housing and basic necessities such as water. The Bill of Rights commits us to these goals.

If anything, young Julius has given us a tangible area to follow up.

In classic Malema style, he does not mouth platitudes open to a thousand interpretations. He says it in the crudest way possible. While it is often a lot of buffoonery, sometimes, as was the case at the University of Cape Town, he gives us something to hold the government to.