Here we go again
DESPITE the extra R7-billion that has been allocated by the Department of Higher Education to help needy students to study, the “Fees must Fall” protests are back.
Does the government say, “This far and no further” and start cracking down on the protests and allow for normality to return to these institutions or do they continue to give in to the demands of the students? Mind you, this is an election year.
The other question is: are the demands of these students unrealistic and unreasonable or are they legitimate and quite achievable? Have the students taken things too far and are they risking losing the initial public sympathy and support they had? Are they, in exercising their constitutional rights, infringing upon other people’s rights to register and study in a conducive atmosphere? I am referring to the fact that UJ had to cancel physical registrations and ask students to register online because of the protests. Astonishingly, the protesting students were up in arms with this decision, claiming it further disadvantaged poorer students as they might not have access to online facilities at home. I found this not only disingenuous but condescending and patronising to the poorer students. I am sure the spokesman, when referring to “poorer” students, was not referring to himself, was he? He was referring to those who took public transport to go and regis- ter and had to go back without doing so because of the protest. The very students could have just spent R15 at an internet cafe near home and be done with it. Wits has taken the extraordinary step of hiring a security firm to secure the ones who are coming to register physically and the students have an issue with this too. They say their rights to gather and protest freely have been infringed upon and they have appealed to the minister to force Wits to withdraw them. I must ask whose rights take precedence? I too am conflicted. I am from a generation that lost three years of schooling from 1984 to 1986 due to school boycotts, in which I participated. Have these students lost perspective and are now a runaway train? Has mob mentality taken hold and now leaves no room for sober assessment? I do not know but what I do know is that no rational decisions can be taken under these circumstances. Universities feel under siege over a problem they never created. One person on radio asked, ‘Why should universities be the focal point of protests when they never promised anyone free education?’ Has the ANC government done enough to achieve universal free education? They have done a lot, but there is still room for improvement. Surely now they know what they need to do. There is enough political will for them to do so, let us give them space.