WINNING EFF WILL LEARN IT’S NOT THAT EASY

THE EFF has scored critical student representative council victories across universities over the past two weeks. This is a big blow to the SA Students’ Congress which has dominated universities since the ’90s.

The EFF is seen, at least in rhetoric, to be what Sasco was or should have been.

It is important to look back at the founding of Sasco, the principles that forged its alliances, and the vision that drove student activists.

In September 1991, Sasco was formed. Many of it leaders have gone on to accomplish great things and this speaks to Sasco’s ability to develop future leaders.

Naledi Pandor remembers its vision was “to locate the Struggle against apartheid on South African campuses, in student residences, in lecture halls and in teaching programmes” and “to be the creation of a democratic system of education”.

Sasco has learnt that the country’s higher education and university system is tied to the neoliberal global formula and market fundamentalism; there is little room to pull the system from the jaws of the capitalist class without collapsing it. The education system is unashamedly neo-liberal, creating winners and losers without any care of how the playing field is rigged.

Sasco has done all it could to ensure that poor, struggling students do not have to quit their dreams. Despite its efforts the problem has persisted – the system cannot be overthrown. Student organisation with a socialist posture must try to improve the system where they can by accepting the legitimacy of the system, which is governed largely by white professors for the benefit of white students.

After a while, the EFF will realise that the university system is too powerful and too hostile to change. Students will realise that after many years of trying its best within the system, Sasco is better positioned to lead student affairs than any newcomer with untested radical statements.

spokesperson | ANC Western Cape | Cape Town