I got back to South Africa on Thursday, 22 October, after 10 days of absence during which a tense situation in higher education had become the biggest student protest wave democratic South Africa has seen in its 21 years of existence.
I had followed the developments on News24, the Mail&Guardian, and other online news sites, as well as on social media, especially Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. My own Facebook site began to fill up with video clips, pictures and stories from the #FeesMustFall student protests.
Meanwhile, I was at an international conference in Moscow, Russia, that focused on researching and improving the student experience of higher education. I was there with some of the top global experts on student politics like Dr Manja Klemencic, on student engagement research like Dr Igor Chirikov and Dr John Douglass, and international higher education like Dr Maria Yudkevich and Prof Isak Froumin.
As we were discussing Post-Soviet higher education challenges, student research, surveys and other methodologies, etc, the student body in South Africa decided to make history and take the untenable fee situation, the exploitation of outsourced workers, issues of institutional cultures, academic staff, student and curriculum transformation and related matters of social justice onto the streets.
Only two weeks before that I was with Nazeema Mohamed, Dr Birgit Schreiber, Chief Mabizela (DHET), Dr Sibusiso Chalufu, Paul Kgobe (CEPD) and others, with the leadership of the South African Union of Students and the leadership of the Student Representative Councils of most south African public universities in four days of training workshops organised by the CEPD at Wits University and the University of the Western Cape. Moreover, shortly before that I was part of a team which for a weekend worked with the University of the Free State SRCs on the Bloemfontein Campus, to develop their co-operative governance and leadership skills. What a turn of events! Well, at Wits the signs of confrontation were surely there: When the Deputy Minister in the Presidency, Mr Buti Manamela, gave his keynote, he was tackled very brusquely by the Wits SRC and other leaders in the workshop - for disrespecting them in so many ways (i.e. being late, being badly prepared, ridiculing them) - to the extent of being very much embarrassed. It was a difficult workshop but also one that really showed that this student leadership will not be undermined.
In the meantime #FeesMustFall has become #FeesHaveFallen and the Presidency - after a meeting on Friday, 23 October, with Vice-Chancellors, Ministers, Presidents of SRCs and other stakeholders - announced a 0% fee increase for 2016. Fees have not really fallen - just that there is no increment. The National Financial Aid Fund is not yet operating properly; the debate on free higher education is not resolved; whatever mad registration and upfront payments are being requested by universities, we don't know how they will be implemented. In other words, after swot weeks and exams, in January/February 2016 we will see a well-rested angry student body faced with impossible upfront payments, insufficient financial aid, inadequate and limited residence space, financial exclusions and academic exclusions, and believe me, there will be fire. Now 2016 is an election year and we all know what that means in SA when it comes to civil unrest. If you want the ANC government to do anything, this is the time.
I don't condone violence; I abhor it, along with the destruction of public and private property. I also and in no lesser terms absolutely condemn and abhor the dehumanising structural violence that continues to be commonplace in this country - the unemployment, inequality, and poverty, and the obscene levels of wealth, conspicuous consumption and degrading attitudes of the rich towards the poor. It is shocking how readily accepted this is in South African society and how the economic and political elite is shamefully passing the buck time after time. This, I submit, is certainly many times more dehumanising than a few tires burnt and a few classes missed. Please, correct me if I am wrong, but have we not fought against financial exclusion for 20 years and more? When if not now? When are we going to have a new deal? A fair deal?
For now, please join me to stand with our youth who are raising legitimate issues, and hope for a resolution of the current crisis beyond 0%, #RhodesHasFallen and #FeesHaveFallen, to a new deal that will move us forward to equality and social justice.
