The downside to student protests

LAST year, South Africans witnessed the rise of the student protests.

What started initially as a zero fee increase turned into the #FeesMustFall protests.

This virtually brought most tertiary institutions to a standstill.

The government took heed of the student requests and one of the deals negotiated, that all students with a combined household income below R600 000 per annum would be subsidised.

This meant the monthly income should be below R50 000 per month for a student to be subsidised.

This basically meant the vast majority of students would be covered.

But can the state afford free education for all students, which I think is improbable.

Unfortunately, there were many downsides to these protests.

The radical rampaging students destroyed university buildings costing millions.

Even libraries were burnt and many of the books and archives will never be recovered.

In the height of the protests some students even took to looting.

Some student activists have vowed to continue these protests.

To top it all, recently UCT’s #RhodesMustFall activists, Joshua Nott and Mbali Matandela, have accepted scholarships worth R670 000 each from the Rhodes Trust to study at Oxford University this year.

Both were involved in the 2015 protests at the University of Cape Town for a statue of Cecil John Rhodes to be removed from its prominent place on the campus.

What kind of hypocrisy is this?

I quote John Milton: “A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond.”

I wonder how many of these radical students who go on the rampage realise the wisdom of these wise words – or do they care? VIJAY SEWTAHAL

Clare Road