President Jacob Zuma’s free education announcement should not be misinterpreted‚ says Higher Education and Training Deputy Minister Buti Manamela.

Manamela was speaking during his university registration system inspection visits‚ which started at the Central Applications Clearing House (CACH) before moving to the University of Johannesburg (UJ) on Wednesday.

“It’s important that we do not distort the announcement made by the president‚” he said. “We have to be responsible with our communication on this message. People have been saying everyone can go to universities‚ to TVET colleges and demand education”‚ but prospective students still have to “meet that particular criteria”.

UJ registrar Professor Kinta Burger said registrations had been running smoothly since Monday.

“By lunchtime on Wednesday‚ the university had registered over 5 500 students‚ and the numbers are growing every hour.

“This trend is aligned to the numbers seen in previous years‚ which confirms that new and returning students are comfortable with the online registration process. Initially‚ due to heavy traffic for online registration and registration related enquiries‚ the system has been slow at times.” Burger said.

UJ Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command president Zwelakhe Mahlamvu said Manamela’s visit served no purpose.

“It’s total nonsense‚” he said. “There is nothing that he is going to do. There is nothing that he is going to solve because we even approached him and he was very arrogant [towards] our very genuine demands.