Fees protests: history shows true revolution lies not in violence
Free quality education will cost less than arms deal, says Vishwas Satgar, but mature road map is crucial
THE crisis at our universities cannot be solved through shows of strength by opposing sides — nor through an all-out crackdown on students by the state. We need an urgent national conversation.
After #FeesMustFall captured the national and global imagination in October last year, it plunged into a mode of violent politics.
Nonviolent pickets and occupations turned into riots and arson attacks at some universities. The cost, estimated at over R470-million, is a slap in the face to all South Africans. The anarchy of nonrepresentative and unaccountable groups turned into a clash with the ethos of intellectual freedom and tolerance that characterises fundamental principles of universities. An infectious copycat or mimetic politics, with a violent underbelly, has returned.
Arson at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, tyre burning at others and battles with private security outside the Great Hall at the University of the Witwatersrand have brought back a siege mentality with deep suspicions and an aversion to dialogue. Teaching, exams and even potential jobs for university leavers are being disrupted. Poor students are bearing the brunt of this.
Some have chosen to ignore this tension-filled reality in their populist fervour and glorification of student militancy, and celebrate violence as performative revolutionary practice in the cauldron of struggle. In this context, there is no moral limit.
But the threat facing our universities reflects a deeper challenge; it is an echo of a nation in crisis.
Student rage largely stems from several lived realities. South Africa’s post-apartheid generation faces a tightening labour market at one end and a highly competitive one in the upper segment. A free quality university education is crucial to give present and future generations life chances. It is one of the few mechanisms for class formation and mobility of an aspirant middle class. Yet this imperative is not being understood by the rulers of this society.
The corruption, maladministration and waste of the ANC state has created a legitimacy deficit. Students perceive bail-outs to corrupt, stateowned enterprises, megaspend on Nkandla, golden handshakes to useless bureaucrats, huge salaries for politicians and avaricious tenders as brazen acts of disregard of their aspirations. The ANC is seen to be a degenerated and an unresponsive political force, and students are asking hard questions about ANC leaders and the party’s role in the state.
The ANC and its degeneration have also given birth to authoritarian populism. Some in the student movement believe they carry the mantle of “revolutionary emancipation”. They are harbingers of the “revolution now”. Yet, in modern human history not a single violent revolution has brought forth an emancipated society.
This was the case even in Frantz Fanon’s Algeria, an example students tend to venerate through a shallow reading. In a recent survey of Wits academics by their union, the overwhelming majority support free quality education — and some student leaders are beginning to understand the importance of solidarity with wider social forces. A recent interfaith prayer service at Wits, led by the student representative council, began creating such a climate.
State and university leadership have also failed to appreciate the importance of deep, ongoing democratic engagement with students.
Higher Education Minister Blade Nzimande’s announcement — although positive in some respects — was a technocratic pronouncement.
If it was a position based on consultation, vice-chancellors and SRC presidents should have been part of the announcement.
University leaderships failed to announce clearly and in tandem what the minister’s announcement meant for each institution. Now universities are overrun by hysteria.
Although South Africa is struggling to build viable state institutions, public universities have mostly grown into successful institutions.
This enormous achievement is threatened to be pushed back by more state irrationality, cutbacks in subsidies (for over two decades) and growing demands on universities.
Wits vice-chancellor Adam Habib has suggested a fully state-funded university system will cost South Africa about R50-billion. This is far less than the arms deal, World Cup or the proposed nuclear programme. The conversation needs to shift to how this can happen sustainably. Students, with progressive academics, supportive parents, sympathetic university leadership and other allies, need to come up with a strategic plan and visionary road map.
Most importantly, students need to appreciate that they have made dramatic short-term gains, such as insourcing at Wits. These gains have to be claimed and nonviolent tactics invented through democratic deliberation to secure more victories.
Satgar is an associate professor at Wits
Students perceive bail-outs, megaspend on Nkandla and golden handshakes as acts of disregard of their aspirations