President Jacob Zuma’s budget-busting plan for free higher education set off a flurry of panic among senior government officials this week‚ even prompting threats by a senior National Treasury official to resign should the proposal go ahead‚ the Sunday Times reports.
It said the president had planned to announce the R40-billion free education plan on Tuesday last week ‚ but held off amid warnings from officials that such a move would plunge South Africa into an economic crisis.
How the Treasury blocked Zuma
Image: REUTERS/Rogan Ward
President Jacob Zuma’s budget-busting plan for free higher education set off a flurry of panic among senior government officials this week‚ even prompting threats by a senior National Treasury official to resign should the proposal go ahead‚ the Sunday Times reports.
It said the president had planned to announce the R40-billion free education plan on Tuesday last week ‚ but held off amid warnings from officials that such a move would plunge South Africa into an economic crisis.
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It also emerged this week that Zuma had initially wanted to announce the plan during his state of the nation address in February‚ but had been forced into a humiliating climb-down after shocked senior officials at the Treasury and in the Presidency scrambled to put the brakes on it‚ the newspaper reported.
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