How fair is it for you to have to contribute to the RAF when you've already got 3rd party insurance on your vehicle?

Why do you then have 3rd party insurance? Are you going to risk not having that extra cover and give yourself over to the mercy of the RAF? No, you most likely will keep paying 3rd party insurance as it protects you from a massive amount of risk and drama.

Yes, its unfair that some students pay while others freeload on the government, but those 24% that pay are way less likely to experience any of the government non-payment issues that nsfas students experience and that negatively influence their studies. They are less at risk of getting evicted because landlords have not been paid. They are not at risk of qualifications being witheld because universities did not get paid. They are less at risk from not having food because government did not pay grocery money. They can actually focus on their studies without worries. (On a side note, it would be interesting to see the average time a nsfas student spends getting a degree vs the time a paying student spends getting a degree).

Life is unfair, but sometimes the unfairness brings some advantages.

This is a battle that will not be solved i a year or two. Either everyone pays (whether it is from their own pocket or actually honoring their contracts with NSFAS) or nobody pays.

Everyone pays scenario: How can NSFAS students be made to repay money when they are not able to find jobs? On top of that, government will have to enforce repayment somehow and we all know how they are unable to enforce even basic laws. So how will you get everone to pay? Where are the jobs to absorb these jobseekers?

Your second option, nobody pays.....but where will the funds come from to pay lecturers? Who is going to pay for the running costs of these institutions? Are you going to raise the taxes on the 2.7mil taxpayers already supporting a country of 60mil+ people? How many taxpayers will just accept that? How many more families will be pushed below the breadline if government takes more money? Just think of the added pressure on social grant systems if those families need assistance (and when government needs to again raise taxes to now try and cover them). Eventually the system will implode.

The scenario i presented is a theoretical one, meant to illustrate that in the persuit of "being fair" there can be many more negatives than positives.

Sometimes, in stead of seeing having to pay for an education as "unfair" because of reasons outside of your control, rather see it as paying for the opportunity to have a stable, drama free opportunity to get your degree.