There is a need for new leadership in education, according to opposition parties.

Addressing the transformation in education debate in Parliament on Tuesday, party after party said it was time for Minister Blade Nzimande to step aside.

Making an example of a video that had shown the minister laughing and saying “students must fall”, IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa said there had been a lack of leadership in the past two weeks in the country.

“Transformation in higher education is necessary for nation building and social cohesion. And such an agenda needs leaders who are fit for purpose,” Hlengwa said.

“Since 2009, the department of higher education has been flitting from failure to failure.”

He said Nzimande was not fit for the purpose and needed to be removed as minister of higher education.

“The honourable thing for him to do would be to resign.”

FF Plus MP Pieter Mulder said with the fees must fall debate, the chickens had come to roost for the ruling party.

“Prior to the 2009 elections, the ANC promised free tertiary education and up to now [it has] done nothing about it. And now the are chickens have come to roost.”

He said students of 2015 were not brainwashed by leadership.

The EFF and Cope also called for the minister to be removed.

DA MP Yusuf Cassim said the best solution to resolve the student issues was to “shuffle Blade out and let the SACP have him”.

“I have said it before, and I will say it again, you, Minister Nzimande, have become a curse to the students of our country.

“You have failed to secure funding for higher education, as is your job, resulting in universities resorting to outsource workers and raise fees. It also meant a gross lack of funds for poor students who are being excluded or riddled with massive debts and indebted graduates unable to access their certificates and find jobs,” Cassim said. News24