Upfront I would like to state that I am a South African of European descent.  

Why am I starting with the above statement? Because it already sets a precedent that I am one of the "privileged" who live in this wonderful country.

Guess what? I'm not!

Before my dad retired his last pay check was for R12 000. He was a blue collar worker. A large portion of black workers earn this much already and they're not even at the end of their careers.

Before that he drove buses for Johannesburg city

Before that he worked on the erection of powerlines for Eskom.

Before that he fled from the war in Mozambique with my mom and 2 year old sister with nothing to his name but literally the clothes on his back. (*cue the eye rollers*)

Yet with only R12k per month he managed to give my mom, sister and myself a life.

What he couldn't afford to give us - which he always wanted to be being a self-educated man, was a university education - *BECAUSE HE COULDN'T AFFORD IT*. (Do you see where I'm going with this?)

Take note of that last line above, everyone who thinks that because I am white - I must be privileged enough to study at a university!

Wrong! Dead wrong! Even though I had a university exemption back in 1996 when I matriculated, I wasn't good enough to qualify for a bursary so there was no chance of getting into varsity without enough funding. I was stranded somewhere in the middle like a large portion of the new black (and all other race) matriculants of today.

Did I sit and complain about my circumstances and blame it on someone else? Did I wait for handouts and "expect" that someone would pay for my education because they "owed" it to me?

Nope. I made another plan. (This is what you do when plan A doesn't work - you make a plan B!) I understood that it was necessary and started working part time manning a till at a bottle store when I was already in Std 8. I did this all the way through to when I started my first full time job in 1998. Between that I matriculated in 1996 and set out to get a college diploma that could help me get a foot in the door as soon as possible so that I could get into the mainstream workforce. I studied part time in 1997 while working during the day at the bottle store. My parents managed to scrape enough together to pay for my course on condition that I would pay them back when I was employed, with interest. In 1998 I landed my first full time job. I only worked at my first employer for the first 6 months until I found another job with more earning and growth potential. I stayed there for a couple of years and WORKED my way up the corporate ladder. I made it my first priority to pay my parents FIRST which I did in the first couple of years of work. I was already learning life lessons about how to manage money from my parents.

To cut a long story short, it's now been 21 years since I first started working...all without a degree...because my family couldn't afford it!

I've made a success of myself by continuing to study those courses that add to my career and experience.

With the money I now earn.

Which still I earn without a degree to my name.

Which I superseded with had work and effort and a lot of sacrifice. (To give you an idea, the average work month averages about 160 hours. I put in about 260 hours for 2 years of my career to push myself further.)

And now you want to tell me that the current and future matriculants "deserve" free tertiary education just because they're underprivileged? Remember now that I was never "privileged" even though I am white. I just understood that I had to work (there's that pesky word again) for those things that I wanted to achieve.

I am in total agreement that whilst a person is under the age of 18, the government has a responsibility to educate that person from the Taxes that we pay. After the age of 18, you are now an adult, and it is no longer the job of the government to support you as an adult. This isn't a grant system where you are going to get paid even though you are able to contribute to the economy. So why exactly should the government be supporting your education once you leave school? I have a couple of friends who, once they turned 18, decided not to go to varsity even though they too had an exemption and the funds to do so. They made this decision as adults and decided to forge their own way.

To sum it up - not everyone in the world is able to attend a varsity. (Yes, this phenomenon does not only burden South Africans. Even people in 1st world countries like the US have exactly the same problem that I had.) But they still have to make a plan for themselves rather than making it the government's (read: taxpayers) problem. So why can't these new adults learn to improvise and make their own way without putting a further burden on an economy (read: taxpayer) that is being supported by a mere 14 million taxpayers out of 52 million ( I think those are the numbers?) people? That’s 26% percent of the population paying for everyone else.

So stop being lazy and improvise. Make a plan, work hard at it and the effort will eventually pay off. If it worked for me, the "underprivileged white guy" it can work for you too.

Keep in mind that if you do get your wish and your degree is paid for by the government, once you start working and earning a living - it will now be your tax money that will be used to pay for the next lot of matriculants who want free varsity education.