WARNING: This article may be more bitter and sarcastic than what the readers are used to from Lelouch Giard, as this matter is both personal and so immensely disappointing. Where possible, objective facts are presented, but this is an opinion piece.
In the last few days, South African universities have not only been plagued by disruptive protests, but by violent and destructive protests. This followed an announcement made by the Minister of Higher Education, Blade Nzimande, on 19 September 2016, that universities across South Africa will be allowed to increase their fees, capped at an increase of 8%, and that the government will subsidise “poor students” – this was defined as those students whose families have an annual income of R600 000 or less. See the full statement by Minister Nzimande here.
This means that, for all practical purposes, the minister has left universities high and dry, placing all the blame on the universities if they were to implement fee increases. Whether he feared a united national student uprising, or merely wanted to shift the blame away from himself and his ANC comrades, is anyone’s guess. While it may seem, on the surface, that the universities are to blame for any fee increases, this is not truly the case.
According to PWC, from 2000 to 2012, the state’s contribution to university education declined from 49% to 40%, while the student’s burden increased from 24% to 31%. The rest of the funds, 29%, are mainly from the private sector. For more information, read “Student fees: facts, figures and observations”.
Universities are bending over backwards to try and meet student demands of a 0% fee increase for everyone – not just the poor – or, lately, for immediate free tertiary education. But what can they do, when the ANC-led government has quietly scaled back on their contribution to education, all while insisting that universities expand to accommodate more students (which is expensive)?
For those who live in the poisonous bliss of ignorance, and believe that universities are somehow very profitable: 12 out of South Africa’s 26 universities are on the verge of bankruptcy. A 0% fee increase would force those 12 universities to close their doors. Half of our tertiary education framework, one step from death.
So let’s have a short look at what has happened where:
University of Pretoria (UP)
On Tuesday, 20 September, students at the University of Pretoria were meant to vote for next year’s Student Representative Council (SRC). Voting was disrupted, marred by violent conflict between groups of students. Reports say that protesters threatened students who were waiting in the queues to vote and demanded that voting stations be closed. Democracy is apparently not something they care for.
Semester test sessions were disrupted and test scripts were either thrown around or ripped up. Tests have been rescheduled, and will need to be rewritten in some cases.
The Economic Freedom Fighters Student Command at Tuks had the following demands:
- That SRC elections should be halted.
- That the University of Pretoria should announce a decrease in fees.
- That no student or staff member taking part in these protests should be victimised.
Note, point 3 is another way of saying that the protesters want to act illegally (or at the very least unethically) without repercussions. They want a free pass on their intimidation and property destruction.
Tuesday evening, a voice note circulated amongst the students. It was a voice note of a female protester threatening students who wanted to continue with classes. “Anyone who goes to class tomorrow, you’re going to k*k, we’re going to beat you up,” the voice note starts. “We can’t be striking while you are in class, learning. We’re doing this for everyone, so stay away from class.”
Of course, this upset a number of students, who feared for their safety if they were to attempt to attend classes on Wednesday. Others had grown used to threats to their safety and life – a sad situation to be in.
On Wednesday, some of the protesters wore red bandannas around their faces to hide their identities – clearly they understand that there is a need to hide. They are acting illegally and face expulsion from the university, but they will attempt to escape facing these consequences. I find this sad. If you want to protest for something you believe in, at least own it and own up to it.
The protesters eventually gathered to create a draft of their demands. These demands include the dismissal of the editor and chief of the university’s newspaper, the Perdyby, the renaming of TuksFM and the Perdeby and free accommodation and food for those students who need it. I admit, if I had free food, education and accommodation, I would be tempted to never end my studies. Perhaps that is what they want – a lifetime tertiary nursery?
Another demand of the protesters is that the students who were suspended and/or arrested during the last protests by reinstated at the university and charges dropped against them. I say “No”. These students acted criminally and they should be punished accordingly. No cause justifies the destruction of property, intimidating or bullying others into doing what you want or disrupting classes and infringing on the rights of others.
After the university’s administration, academic and security staff adamantly tried to allow committed students to continue with the planned academic programme, classes were finally suspended on the main campus around midday on 21 September. Later in the day, all students and staff members were informed that academic activities have been suspended on all campuses and that these activities will resume on Monday, 26 September.
The university has confirmed that it has started suspending students taking part in these illegal protest actions (yes, they are illegal, as the university has a court interdict against protests and disruptions of classes on campus).
The university released a message to all students, stating that while protests are to be respected, violent protests are not to be tolerated. One anonymous student told Eyewitness News that this message “just tells us that they are shook. Hopefully they are taking us seriously.” This student claims that shutting down the university is the only way to get the university’s management to listen.
Now, make no mistake, these students who are claiming to be victims or visionaries, are for the most part simply bullies. They intimidate and threaten other students, depriving their fellow students of an education that they have either paid for or worked very hard for. This counts for protesters across the country, not just those at the University of Pretoria.
As you can see, listing all that has happened at the universities across South Africa will take a lot of time – you will most likely get tired of reading it. So I will attempt a much abbreviated summary for the rest.
Tshwane University of Technology (TUT)
Students disrupted classes, intimidated other students into joining the protest and raided classrooms. All this without having put together a memorandum with demands or having given the university the opportunity to consider any demands they may have.
University of Cape Town (UCT)
Amongst many things, like the violent disruption of classes and threatening of fellow students, one incident at UCT has made headlines. It is a video of Ntokozo Qwabe, who is seen wielding a stick (footage available here).
If “Ntokozo Qwabe” sounds familiar to you, Qwabe was thrust into the lime light earlier this year when he boasted about a racist and rude remark he and his friend made to a white waitress who had been serving them. Refusing to provide a tip, and boasting about the event on Facebook made the Oxford graduate an unwelcome reminder of racial divides for many in South Africa.
He and other protesters disrupted a lecture of final year law students. Qwabe was standing on a desk while a nearby student was filming his antics with his phone. Qwabe used his so-called “protest stick” to batter the phone out of the student’s hand while a female protester used a water bottle to assault another student, attempting to knock the phone from his/her hands.
Qwabe later furiously reacted to news reports that he had hit another student. He claims he and a fellow protester asked the student to stop filming them “nicely” (according to Qwabe this student wasn’t allowed to film them without their permission – Qwabe would be wrong. As long as the footage is not used for commercial purposes, it is not necessary to ask permission to photograph or film someone in a public domain).
Qwabe made two rather ridiculous claims: firstly, that the stick he was carrying was a “protest stick” with some sort of cultural significance, and secondly that hitting a phone out of the student’s hand was not assault on the student, but the phone. Poor lies, both – his “stick-carrying culture” is a culture of one person only, and the truth is that he uses the stick for intimidation, and now assault. The second claim is even more delusional – would he not consider it assault if I punched his shirt? (Screen-grabs of Qwabe’s reaction below article)
Classes at UCT have been suspended until Monday.
The vice-chancellor of the university, Max Price, organised a picket by students and staff at Parliament, on 22 September, where they wanted to hand over a memorandum with demands, the most crucial of which is more financial support from the government for universities. This is the way to go, in my opinion. Unification of students and staff and directing attentions to those who truly have the power to change things: the government.
But, alas, there were students who disagreed with this picket. Although the cause is the same, students say that the vice-chancellor is “taking the protest away from students” and shifting the “lime light” onto them. And that is exactly my problem. If these students had any concern regarding results, they would not care whether the staff joined them or not – they would revel in the opportunity to target those who really have the power (and money) to change things. Instead, these students are concerned with the lime light and the focus of the media reports.
Wits
Following violent stand-offs between students and police/security, where protesting students pelted security with rocks and some members of security threw rocks back at students on 20 September, things escalated on 21 September. Students again threw rocks at the police and the police officers opened fire with rubber bullets.
Students decided to take their protests to the streets, where more clashes between them and the police followed.
Classes at Wits have been suspended until Monday.
Some students threaten to continue damaging property. I find this nonsensical. How do they expect fees to be decreased if they keep adding to the university’s expenses? The university has to repair the things that they break. Those libraries and buildings are meant to be used not only by current students, but future students. The students who are burning down buildings are spitting in the face of those less privileged than they are, those who cannot afford the education that the protesters can make use of.
University of the Free State (UFS)
Classes at the University of the Free State have been suspended until Monday. The university’s spokesperson pleads with students to understand their financial predicament. The university simply cannot afford a 0% fee increase – this would mean (amongst other measures) cutting back on staff, which would influence the quality of education.
Classes at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) have also been suspended for the rest of the week.
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
Protesters at the University of KwaZulu-Natal warned of “mass destruction” on 21 September. And they delivered. On 22 September, protesters started fires across campus and taunted the police, despite arrested. Police raided the residences at the university in an attempt to get non-protesters out safely.
Buildings at the University of Fort Hare have been torched.
University of South Africa (UNISA)
Students at UNISA have been more sensible, deciding not to take any action until the university has made an announcement regarding its fees (https://www.ecr.co.za/news-sport/news/no-action-by-unisa-students-until-fees-pronouncement/).
Note that most, if not all, of the universities have not yet made any announcements concerning fee increases or decreases and that protesters have mostly delayed delivering any form of demand to the managements of the relevant universities. These protesters seem to want nothing more than disorder and anarchy – the protests have little or nothing to do with fees, and far more with political agendas.
Those students who are satisfied with the government’s subsidies have been chased off campuses and threatened, their classes disrupted and tests ripped up. I have been one of those affected. Let it be clear, I believe that tertiary education must gradually be made available to everyone, but I also know that this is not immediately possible. Demanding free, quality education right now from universities is nonsensical. It isn’t feasible, and the universities would need much more backing from an uncaring ANC government to even survive another blanket 0% fee increase.
Only a handful of countries in the world have free tertiary education. All of these countries are first world countries with very little corruption on government level, little unemployment and high average incomes. These countries also have a much larger base of taxpayers than South Africa (still a developing country) and thus far more tax income per person than South Africa.
There must be an intermediate phase. There are other issues – like corruption within our government – that must be solved before we can feasibly consider free tertiary education.
Here is a little fact to linger on: only just over 10% of South Africans pay income tax, which is one of the largest sources of government income. Over half of all South Africans receive some form of social grant from the government. A tiny portion of South Africa is carrying the entire government and everything it does – and an inverted pyramid like this can easily fall over into failed state.
I’d like to implore those who agree with me to take a stand by Tweeting or posting on Facebook using the hashtag #IWantMyClasses and by sharing this article. Personally, I would like to show the #FeesMustFall protesters that I can support their cause and be rational about it – that there is no need to disrupt, intimidate, threaten or infringe on the rights of others.
Please also read my article “Decolonisation of South African Universities”) and consider reading “It’s Not ‘Free’ If I Am Paying For It, Poepol!” by Viv Vermaak.
You can view other articles by Lelouch Giard at A Vigilant Voice. You can also use this platform to subscribe to A Vigilant Voice, to receive email updates whenever Lelouch Giard publishes and article at South Africa Today or on his blog.
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