The fees must fall campaign

[Citizen X]

Next there is going to be demonstrations for free boarding and lodging.

I had to be present at every class, as the Technikon took roll call, and had to pass every single module. I then had to work for Phillips for a period of 5 years to pay for my bursary.

They are already asking for this as part of the free tertiary education package: Tuition, textbooks and residence.

I recognized a class struggle and somehow believed that the ensuing years of constitutional democracy would remedy this, it didn't. The class struggle is worse than it was and is growing.

The rich want to differentiate themselves from the poor in one way or another(but you know what, the poor won't have it, they will not tolerate this class struggle forever). I really want to see my brothers and sisters from the informal settlements have free tertiary education, so that this can balance the equation.

I want to see my brothers and sisters from informal settlements become doctors, lawyers, chartered accountants, engineers, executives etc. This will break the class struggle.

I know how my protesting bothers and sisters feel. I don't agree with their approach, but I really want to see free tertiary education for academically deserving poor students. A very important question is who is the poor and will he or she really get the much needed redress.
If you strip ‘poor,’ or “poorness,” down to the barest essentials, and simply asked for a list of the poorest of South Africans, surely people living in informal settlements and the homeless are at the top of the list. There currently exists large number of capable young men and women, teenagers from informal settlements who have either successfully completed matric or are in the process of obtaining matric. Many want to study at university. The system should have them high on the list of higher educational opportunities. So, whatever comes of this slice of free higher education,this community(with real human beings with real human rights issues) should be getting a huge slice. It must be seen that these opportunities are being made available to the poorest of the poor, or then what’s the point?

[adrianh]

So they burned cars at CPUT and UCT last night.

Well done, now your lecturers, brothers and sisters get to walk!

PIGS

[Trickzta]

Here's my first link to clarify or attempt to clarify my opinion on the student crisis. I've shortened the text and have omitted much of the text in the linked article. I reccommend reading this post to get the full import of what the author is saying. I think I've managed not to use parts out of context. This can be ascertained by reading the whole link. A link in the post takes you to an article in which Marx and Rawls are mentioned.

http://www.dailymaverick.co.za/artic...l#.WA8gPxCxXqC

The upheaval on South Africa’s campuses is a national crisis of great complexity with potentially vast long-term consequences. By RICHARD CALLAND.

This is a statement of the obvious. What is far less clear is how to resolve the crisis. There are no easy answers. Everywhere one turns there are painful dilemmas and bewildering contradictions.

And it is so much easier to condemn than to ask the question: why? As the crisis has taken a more violent and distressing turn in recent days, so it has seemed even more intractable and troubling, and so has required one to think even harder about it, it’s causes and what can be done.

One of the many disappointing aspects of the past few weeks has been that, despite their academic pedigree, so few of my colleagues have been willing to pose, let alone try to answer, the question ‘why?’

So many of the people who call in to the Radio stations are quick to condemn and prefer to focus on the effects rather than the causes of the current crisis. (The TITs I mentioned)

It is a crisis that is fundamentally multidimensional: the student protesters’ grievances span the micro (fees and individual cases of student arrest or suspension) and the macro (inequality and injustice, lack of real transformation, the rights of workers etc.)

Yet, the dominant voice in at least some parts of UCT, and certainly in the law school where I am based, has been one-dimensional: you are either for the protesters “who are disrupting classes” or for the students “who want to learn”, even though, as their leaders keep pointing out, the protesting students also want to go back to class – but not until their demands are met.

Instead of locking ourselves in our offices we should have gone out together to greet and engage them.

We should be there to listen and learn. Because amid all the noise and confusion, there is much to be heard and learnt.

This prompts a different view of what is unfolding, does it not? Perhaps there are more grounds for hope and for renewal than we can yet see. Indeed, rather than concentrating on the divisions, we should all be on one side because, in fact, the things that unite us should be greater than the things that divide us.

We all want decent, quality education, at school and tertiary levels; and we want it to be equitable and accessible to all.

And, unless we are of a particularly closed mind, we should also all be willing to examine our curricula and consider how they can be improved by African ideas and thinking that have been neglected or ignored for far too long being incorporated to give greater texture and relevance to our curricula. (Long overdue)

Clearly, we need to have a deep, unrushed, intelligent and open-minded, properly facilitated dialogue about this. (Our best chance to settle this once and for all)

In this respect, I agree with Joel Modiri, writing on these pages, when he argued that “the Fallist call for decolonisation – however inchoate it may appear – promises to cultivate a truly rigorous and lively academic space and open up a much wider intellectual archive”.

The militancy of the student movement thus requires us to address this question urgently, since the underlying message of their protests is that the festering, unresolved issue of race and privilege, of economic opportunity and inclusion, and of accountability in the use of public and private power. (Couldn't have said it better myself!)

As a start: should the university not only be a place of learning, but also change...

For UCT, this may, for example, require it not only to reconsider but to depart from its liberal heritage.

That the protests have taken a violent turn is deeply unsettling.

And beyond the university, we should all be concerned about levels of injustice and racism that cling stubbornly to modern South Africa.

Good questions were put to Skhumbuzo about the use of violence, about unintended consequences, about whether, in fact, the aim was and is to ensure that the academic year will not be finished, and about whether the protest movement had not already won enough victories to justify a shift in tactics – an idea that international relations professor Vish Satgar, a former SACP and Trade union activist, advanced in the Sunday Times a few days earlier.

In sharp contrast, when Skhumbuzo appeared on “my” Cape Talk radio show later that day, some of the callers displayed an astonishing level of violence in response to his reasoned arguments justifying the protests and the call for a shutdown.

One caller, “Stan from Stellenbosch”, even suggested that the South African government should emulate the United States in 1970 when the national guard entered the grounds of Kent University and shot dead four protesting students. This, Stan argued, would resolve the crisis.

How many of the people who are so violently ill-disposed towards the student protesters have not met and do not know the people that they are condemning. Many speak from a position of ignorance as well as privilege. So, part of our responsibility as academics is to understand the views of all of our students so that we can help communicate them to the outside world. (I fully agree.)

In fact, the leaders of the student movement are some of the most intellectually engaged members of the UCT community.

It is also why I am writing this article – to try to persuade people to think carefully before condemning the protesters without thinking harder about why they have resorted to such action. (Or why they aren't thinking about it at all!)

Of course, the government should be leading these efforts, but they resemble the proverbial rabbit in the headlights,

It would be remiss at this point not to mention just how disillusioned with government and the ruling party the student movement is. The political establishment is seen as completely out of touch, with no real concern for the needs and interests of the black working class. Thus, despite some evidence of EFF involvement on other campuses, party politics has found no place in UCT’s movement for this reason. (EFF will be there no question about it. This is the party that needs the captured data to stay in contact with future leaders and to mobilise a crowd whenever they protest or march etc. This party will appear as the party that listens.)

The failure of the government to act on its responsibilities has-

there is a level of disunity and division within its leadership, and – a fundamental problem – simply demanding that all of its demands be met is not a “negotiating position”.

So, we will have to tackle this ourselves and take the steps necessary to create a dialogue that draws on, rather rejects, South Africa’s past:

Taking responsibility for organising, mobilising and supporting a national dialogue and the structures that this implies, means being willing to engage with all the students, whether we approve of their tactics or not.

Regrettably, not all of us who happen to be white and/or privileged are willing to accept the power that comes with it, and the responsibility it imposes to listen even more carefully and to treat with absolutely seriousness the complaints that are presented to us. (Unfortunate indeed)

One of the laments of the student leaders was that the progressive members of the law faculty had remained virtually silent; they did not feel any sense of solidarity or empathy from us. (EFF steps up to the plate.)

They were right. Not for the first time in history, when the going gets rough, progressive principles relating to social justice, economic inclusion and equity, and transparent and accountable dialogue processes, are silenced by the Stans of Stellenbosch of this world and trampled on by an increasingly authoritarian state response to public order in which we all lose out.

Those of us who consider ourselves to be politically progressive must recognise the politics of this crisis and to recognise the progressive politics that is embedded within much of the student movement’s approach and underlying rationale. Within at least some of the student movement’s ideological stance is a distinctive socialist, as well as a distinctive Africanist, strain. That is why, perhaps, it is challenging, as well as uncomfortable for much of the UCT establishment.

Yet having said this, I would add that you don’t have to support the protests outright or unquestioningly to be able to listen to the reasoned arguments that are being made and to empathise with its underlying sense of grievance.

I've more posts and validating links that I'll split up due to the length of some posts and as I've said "This is huge. Make no mistake about it.

Remember Malema never made Marikana, Marikana made Malema. With the help of our New False Independence Rulers and their Capitalist Masters.

The Western Cape University seems to be (I'm not sure of this being true but I'm sure it seems to be) the main focus of the "burn it Brigade" and while I cannot back up my opinion if this is the case then the Zuma faction is dragging its feet on finding a solution in order to create as much chaos as possible. And to generate and spread as much intolerance, violence and racism as possible.

The EEF as a new movement/party/force in South African affairs has legal and logical reasons to have a presence on campus. Recruiting young intellectuals and others to broaden their fast growing base of supporters.

However they could also be stirring things up for the DA and the ANC in order to embarass them. I really don't know.

That foreign Intelligence Agencies have a presence in this situation is a given. Maybe (that's a big maybe) they've not infiltrated student groups or recruited top students in this movement but they're watching closely and also grabbing data from cell phones, tablets and pc's for using in future crisis of their making. This is 100% theory and 100% fact. Albeit an unconfirmed fact.

[HR Solutions]

My son is doing his Masters at the moment therefore it does not affect him much, but please do not think these are all poor students - Most of them have bursaries etc etc and they have lost the reason why they are protesting. My son says that he sees them get caught up in the moment and get dragged along causing trouble.
And I repeat these are NOT poor students that don't have cell phones etc etc - they all have their cell phones and iPads etc etc . These are students who want to get a name for themselves and are students that are failing and can't make it.

We are getting to a point where no one knows what to do - The police are scared of reacting in case they get into trouble !!!

My opinion is - bring in the army and bliksams the little shits. The majority of students want to study - they should go and sort the others out - My son has said a few times now that he would like to actually grab one and tell him and talk to him and ask him what he actually wants !!!


Ps Im afraid I lose interest in a long post that Trickzta posted and therefore have not read it. Probably because I don't agree with the other posts that I attempted to read

[adrianh]

The parents of those students are 100% to blame for what is going on. We as parents have a responsibility to teach our children what is appropriate behavior and what is not. Their parents clearly have not taught them anything.

[adrianh]

...and McDonald's must fall too...

THESE ARE THE FUTURE LEADERS OF SOUTH FRICA

Images care of Imgur / Reddit

[Andromeda]

Trickzta, you said

Remember Malema never made Marikana, Marikana made Malema. With the help of our New False Independence Rulers and their Capitalist Masters.

You surely realise that your assertion is hopelessly inaccurate? I think I know what you mean, but the latter sure as heck happened long after the former had made his political position clear. His involvement in that matter was unusually opportunistic.

The rest of what you have written is long on opinion and short on fact.

[HR Solutions]

The rest of what you have written is long on opinion and short on fact.

Thats why I don't read his loooong drawn out fictitious posts anymore .....

[Trickzta]

http://www.pambazuka.org/global-sout...-corbyn-africa

Let me state at the outset that I am not directly involved in the politics of the UK. It is none of my business (or Africa’s) to meddle in the manner the UK organises its elections.

I wish to add that the British and the West should extend the same courtesy to Africa, and let Africans decide their own future.

I am realistic enough to know that such courtesy will not be extended. So, in the end, we’ve to take our future in our own hands. (Cut and pasted section) PSsst the only cut and paste piece on this post.

Thanks for your input Andromeda. Positive critism is always welcome. The post in question does contain a lot of opinion and was posted as such.

Your reply falls into the same category as my post does. Long on opinion and short on facts.

What I meant about Malema (and you did get it right) was that his "come back" into mainstream politics from the "political wilderness" wouldn't have been anywhere near as meteoric as it was if the Marikana Massacre hadn't happened. This you acknowledge. I dare say that the #feesmustfall is in line with Malema's thinking. After all he knows what it's like to be a student. He has a degree or maybe two, it's not just his phone that's smart.

I have a lot more information about Malema and am interested to hear what you consider his political position to be

[adrianh]

I have a lot more information about Malema and am interested to hear what you consider his political position to be

No thanks, we don't have time to read huge cut & paste